ld grapes to spare, and I asked Henry to go down to the orchard
with me. I suppose you can spare me some of those wild grapes?"

"Take all you want, and welcome," said Sylvia. "Now, I'll put supper
on the table, and we'll eat it. I ain't going to wait any longer for
anybody."

After Sylvia had gone, with a jerk, out of the room, the two men
looked at each other. "Couldn't you give Allen a hint to lay low
to-night, anyhow?" whispered Meeks.

Henry shook his head. "They'll be sure to show it some way," he
replied. "I don't know what's got into Sylvia."

"It seems a pretty good sort of match, to me."

"So it does to me. Of course Rose has got more money, and I know as
well as I want to that Horace has felt a little awkward about that;
but lately he's been earning extra writing for papers and magazines,
and it was only last Monday he told me he'd got a steady job for a
New York paper that wouldn't interfere with his teaching. He seemed
mighty tickled about it, and I guess he made up his mind then to go
ahead and get married."

"Come to supper," cried Sylvia, in a harsh voice, from the next room,
and the two men went out at once and took their seats at the table.
Rose's and Horace's places were vacant. "I'd like to know what they
think," said Sylvia, dishing up the baked beans. "They can eat the
corn cold. It's just as good cold as it is all dried up. Here it is
six o'clock and they ain't come yet."

"These are baked beans that are baked beans," said Meeks.

"Yes, I always have said that Sylvia knows just how to bake beans,"
said Henry. "I go to church suppers, and eat other folks' baked
beans, but they 'ain't got the knack of seasoning, or something."

"It's partly the seasoning and partly the cooking," said Sylvia, in a
somewhat appeased voice.

"This is brown bread, too," said Meeks. His flattering tone was
almost fulsome.

Henry echoed him eagerly. "Yes, I always feel just the same about the
brown bread that Sylvia makes," he said.

But the brown bread touched a discordant tone.

Sylvia frowned. "Mr. Allen always wants it hot," said she, "and it
'll be stone cold. I don't see where they went to."

"Here they are now," said Henry. He and Meeks cast an apprehensive
glance at each other. Voices were heard, and Horace and Rose entered.

"Are we late?" asked Rose. She smiled and blushed, and cast her eyes
down before Sylvia's look of sharp inquiry. There was a wonderful new
beauty about the girl. She fairly