booked for life."

He was game about it, though, Merry was. He squares it with Aunty
before goin' to bed, and right after breakfast next mornin' he marches
over to the Hibbses real business-like. Half an hour later I saw him
strollin' out on the wharf with one of the big sisters, and I knew it
must be Violet. It was his busy day; so I says nothin' to anybody, but
fades.

And you should have seen the jaunty, beamin' J. Meredith that swings
into the Corrugated Monday mornin'. He stops at the gate to give me a
fraternal grip.

"It's all right, Torchy," says he. "She--she'll have me--Violet, you
know. And we are to live abroad. We sail in less than a month."

"But what about Pansy?" says I.

"Oh, she's coming with us, of course," says he. "Really, they're both
charming girls."

"Huh!" says I. "That's where you were when I found you. You're past
that point, remember."

"Yes, I know," says he. "It was you helped me too, and I wish in some
way I could show my----"

"You can," says I. "Leave me the cornet. I might need it some day
myself."