window and to smoke slowly.

"Not being as rich as Croesus--or you," resumed Carr, regarding him from
beneath lowered lids, "I paddle my own canoe down the stream of Time,
and, tying it to my friends' door-posts, go in to eat their dinners."

"Quite Venetian," said Jem Benson, still looking out of the window.
"It's not a bad thing for you, Wilfred, that you have the doorposts and
dinners--and friends."

Carr grunted in his turn. "Seriously though, Jem," he said, slowly,
"you're a lucky fellow, a very lucky fellow. If there is a better girl
above ground than Olive, I should like to see her."

"Yes," said the other, quietly.

"She's such an exceptional girl," continued Carr, staring out of the
window. "She's so good and gentle. She thinks you are a bundle of all
the virtues."

He laughed frankly and joyously, but the other man did not join him.
"Strong sense--of right and wrong, though," continued Carr, musingly.
"Do you know, I believe that if she found out that you were not----"

"Not what?" demanded Benson, turning upon him fiercely, "Not what?"

"Everything that you are," returned his cousin, with a grin that belied
his words, "I believe she'd drop you."

"Talk about something else," said Benson, slowly; "your pleasantries are