t and catlike satisfaction. Only to the
Dean's ripe and kindly wisdom was his name not utterly anathema.

"My dear," said he once to his wife, who was deploring her nephew's
character and fate--"I have hopes of Oliver even yet. A man must have
something of the devil in him if he wants to drive the devil out."

Mrs. Conover was shocked. "My dear Edward!" she cried.

"My dear Sophia," said he, with a twinkle in his mild blue eyes that
had puzzled her from the day when he first put a decorous arm round
her waist. "My dear Sophia, if you knew what a ding-dong scrap of
fiends went on inside me before I could bring myself to vow to be a
virtuous milk-and-water parson, your hair, which is as long and
beautiful as ever, would stand up straight on end."

Mrs. Conover sighed.

"I give you up."

"It's too late," said the Dean.

* * * * *

The Manningtrees, father and mother and son, were gone. Doggie bore
the triple loss with equanimity. Then Peggy Conover, hitherto under
the eclipse of boarding-schools, finishing schools and foreign travel,
swam, at the age of twenty, within his orbit. When first they met,
after a year's absence, she very gracefully withered the symptoms of
the cousinly kiss, to which they had been accustomed all their lives,
by stretching out a long, frank, and defensive arm. Perhaps if she had
allowed the salute, there would have been an end of the matter. But
there came the phenomenon which, unless she was a minx of craft and
subtlety, she did not anticipate; for the first time in his life he
was possessed of a crazy desire to kiss her. Doggie fell in love. It
was not a wild consuming passion. He slept well, he ate well, and he
played the flute without a sigh causing him to blow discordantly into
the holes of the instrument. Peggy vowing that she would not marry a
parson, he had no rivals. He knew not even the pinpricks of jealousy.
Peggy liked him. At first she delighted in him as in a new and
animated toy. She could pull strings and the figure worked amazingly
and amusingly. He proved himself to be a useful toy, too. He was at
her beck all day long. He ran on errands, he fetched and carried.
Peggy realized blissfully that she owned him. He haunted the Deanery.

One evening after dinner the Dean said:

"I am going to play the heavy father. How are things between you and
Peggy?"

Marmaduke, taken unawares, reddened violently. He murmured that he
didn't know.

"You