conscious, as he turned toward the master of the house, that Bassett was
observing him intently. His gaze was so direct and searching that
Harwood was disconcerted for a moment; then Bassett remarked
carelessly,--

"I should think newspaper work a good training for the law. It drills
faculties that a lawyer exercises constantly."

Mrs. Bassett now made it possible for Marian and young Blackford to
contribute to the conversation.

"I'm going to Annapolis," announced the boy.

"You've had a change of heart," said his father, with a smile. "It was
West Point last week."

"Well, it will be Annapolis next week," the lad declared; and then, as
if to explain his abandonment of a military career, "In the Navy you get
to see the world, and in the Army you're likely to be stuck away at some
awful place on the Plains where you never see anything. The Indians are
nearly all killed anyhow."

"We hear a good deal nowadays about the higher education of woman," Mrs.
Bassett remarked, "and I suppose girls should be prepared to earn their
own living. Mothers of daughters have that to think about."

Miss Marian, catching Dan's eye, smiled as though to express her full
appreciation of the humor of her mother's remark.

"Mama learned that from my Aunt Sally," she ventured; and Dan saw that