brought him home, not even to tune the piano. He's quite a well behaved,
sensible-appearing young man, a little over thirty, I should say. And he
does speak nicely, though I think Paula exaggerates about that."

"Sensible or not, he's fallen wildly in love with her, of course," Mary
observed. "The more so they are the more instantaneously they do it."

But this lead was one Miss Wollaston absolutely declined to follow. "If
that clock's right," she exclaimed, gazing at a little traveling affair
Mary had brought home with her, "I haven't another minute." It was not
right, for it was still keeping New York time, but the diversion served.
"Wallace Hood spoke of coming in to see you about tea-time," she said
from the doorway. "I'm going to be to busy even to stop for a cup, so do
be down if you can."




CHAPTER V

JOHN MAKES A POINT OF IT


Mary was warmly touched by the thought of Wallace's coming to see her in
that special sort of way when he was certain of finding her at dinner an
hour or two later. Her feelings about him were rather mixed but he dated
back to the very earliest of her memories, and his kindly affectionate
attitude toward her had never failed, even during those periods when she
had treated him most detestably. Even as a little girl, she had been
aware of his sentimental attachment to her mother and perhaps in an