mouth that was always on the point of
breaking into a smile when it was not actually smiling tempered the
peasant shrewdness of a face that got further softening, and a touch of
superiority, from a carefully tended young mustache.

Thor and Jim Breen had been on friendly terms ever since they were boys;
but the case was not exceptional, since the latter was on similar terms
with every one in the village. From childhood upward he had been a local
character, chiefly because of a breezy self-respect that was as free
from self-consciousness as from self-importance. There was no one to
whom he wasn't polite, but there had never been any one of whom he was
afraid. "Hello, Mr. Masterman!" "Hello, Dr. Hilary!" "Hello, Father
Ryan!" "Hello Dr. Sim!" had been his form of greeting ever since he had
begun swaggering around the village, with head up and face alert, at the
age of five. No one had ever been found to resent this cheerful
familiarity, not even Archie Masterman.

As a man in whom friendliness was a primary instinct, Jim Breen never
entered a trolley-car nor turned a street corner without speaking or
nodding to every one he knew. Never did he visit a neighboring town
without calling on, or calling up, every one he could claim as an
acquaintance. He was always on hand for fires, for fights, for fallen
horses, for first-aid in accidents, for ball-games, for the outings of
Boy Scouts, and for village theatricals and dances. There were rumors
that he was sometimes "wild," but the wildness being confined to his
incursions into the city--which generally took place after dark--it was
not sufficiently in evidence to shock the home community. It was a
matter of common knowledge that he used, in village phrase, "to go with"
Rosie Fay--the breaking of the friendship being attributed by some of
the well-informed to his reported wildness, and by others to differences
in religion. As Thor had been absent in Europe during this episode, and
was without the native suspicion that would have connected the two
names, he took Jim's arrival pleasantly.

Having finished his bit of business, which concerned an order for
azaleas too large for his father to meet, and in which Mr. Fay might
find it to his advantage to combine, Jim turned blithely toward Thor.
"Hear about the town meeting, Dr. Thor?--what old Billy Taylor said
about the new bridge? What do you think of that for nerve? Tell you
what, there's some things in this town needs clearing