fresh, ardent, sensitive face. He threw every thought to the
winds--except the thought of rescuing his princess from Mrs. Newbolt's
imprisoning bric-a-bràc. As for his "cramming" the tutor into whose
hands Mr. Houghton had committed his ward's very defective trigonometry
and economics, Mr. Bradley, held in Mercer because of an annoying
accident, said to himself that his intentions were honest, but if Curtis
didn't turn up for three days running, he would utilize the time his
pupil was paying for by writing a paper on "The Fourth Dimension."

Maurice was in some new dimension himself! Except "old Brad," he knew
almost no one in Mercer, so he had no confidant; and because his
passion was, perforce, inarticulate, his candid forehead gathered
wrinkles of positive suffering, which made him look as old as Eleanor,
who, dazed by the first very exciting thing that had ever happened to
her,--the experience of being adored (and adored by a boy, which is a
heady thing to a woman of her age!)--Eleanor was saying to herself a
dozen times a day: "I _mustn't_ say 'yes'! Oh, what _shall_ I do?" Then
suddenly there came a day when the rush of his passion decided what she
would do....

Her aunt had announced that she was going to Europe. "I'm goin' to take
you," Mrs. Newbolt said. "_I_ don't know what would become of you if I
left you alone! You are about as capable as a baby. That was a great
phrase of your dear uncle Thomas's--'capable as a baby,' I'm perfectly
sure the parlor ceilin' has got to be tinted this spring. When does your
school close? We'll go the minute it closes. You can board Bingo with
Mrs. O'Brien."

Eleanor, deeply hurt, was tempted to retort with the announcement that
she needn't be "left alone"; she might get married! But she was silent;