Baxter explained to her husband. "I was out, this afternoon, and she ate
nearly ALL of a five-pound box of candy."

Both the sad-eyed William and his father were dumfounded. "Where on
earth did she get a five-pound box of candy?" Mr. Baxter demanded.

"I'm afraid Jane has begun her first affair," said Mrs. Baxter. "A
gentleman sent it to her."

"What gentleman?" gasped William.

And in his mother's eyes, as they slowly came to rest on his in reply,
he was aware of an inscrutability strongly remindful of that inscrutable
look of Jane's.

"Mr. Parcher," she said, gently.




XII

PROGRESS OF THE SYMPTOMS

Mrs. BAXTER'S little stroke of diplomacy had gone straight to the mark,
she was a woman of insight. For every reason she was well content to
have her son spend his evenings at home, though it cannot be claimed
that his presence enlivened the household, his condition being one of
strange, trancelike irascibility. Evening after evening passed, while
he sat dreaming painfully of Mr. Parcher's porch; but in the daytime,