twenty-two other boarders who could be seated at meals all at the
same time, so immense was the dining-room. He ate his dinner at
a restaurant daily, and expended twenty-five cents for it without
blenching. He went to the theatre once a week, and was often
accompanied by "lady friends" who were "elegant dressers."

In a moment of wrath Stephen had called him a "counter-jumper,"
but it was a libel. So short and rough a means of exit from his
place of power was wholly beneath Claude's dignity. It was with
a "Pardon me, Miss Dir," that, the noon hour having arrived, he
squeezed by that slave and victim, and raising the hinged board
that separated his kingdom from that of the ribbon department,
passed out of the store, hat in hand, serene in the consciousness
that though other clerks might nibble luncheon from a brown paper
bag, he would speedily be indulging in an expensive repast; and
Miss Dir knew it, and it was a part of his almost invincible
attraction for her.

It seemed flying in the face of Providence to decline the
attentions of such a gorgeous butterfly of fashion simply because
one was engaged to marry another man at some distant day.

All Edgewood femininity united in saying that there never was
such a perfect gentleman as Claude Merrill; and during the time
when his popularity was at its height Rose lost sight of the fact
that Stephen could have furnished the stuff for a dozen Claudes
and have had enough left for an ordinary man besides.

April gave place to May, and a veil hung between the lovers,--
an intangible, gossamer-like thing, not to be seen with the naked