ignominious rout. With considerable deliberation he folded the carpet,
placed it in the box with his other treasure, and started at a pace which
may, perhaps, have quickened a little, yet was never undignified--never
more than a moderately fast trudge.

He wondered sadly if Clytie would get up to unlock the door for him so
late at night. As for Penny, things could never be the same between them
again.

He was astounded to see lights burning and the house open--how weird for
them to have supper at such an hour! He concealed his box in the
grape-arbour and slunk through the kitchen into the dining-room. Probably
they had gotten up in the middle of the night, out of tardy alarm for him.
It served them right. Yet they seemed hardly to notice him when he slid
awkwardly into his chair. He looked calculatingly over the table and
asked, in tones that somehow seemed to tell of injury, of personal
affront:

"What you having supper for at this time of night?"

His grandfather regarded him now not unkindly, while Clytie seemed
confused.

"It's more'n long past midnight!" he insisted.

"Huh! it ain't only a quarter past seven," put in his superior brother.
He seemed about to say more, but a glance from the grandfather silenced
him.

So _that_ was as late as he had stayed--a quarter after seven? He was