He could not free the cramped muscles of his spirit to meet her
quite on her own ground; it was his fate sometimes to reach the
laugh just as all the others grew suddenly serious, and as often
he took their airy interest heavily, and chained them with facts,
from which they fluttered like a flight of butterflies. But he had
his own claim, and it warmed the very fibres of his lonely heart
when he saw that Nancy was beginning to recognize that claim.

When they all went out to the theatre and supper, it was his
pocket-book that never failed them. And what a night that was
when, eagerly proffering the fresh bills to Lee Porter, who was
giving the party, he looked up to catch a look of protest, and
shame, and gratitude, in Nancy's lovely eyes!

"No, now, Lee, you shall not take it!" she laughed richly. Bert
thought for a second that this was more than mere persiflage, for
the expression on the girl's face was new. Later he reminded
himself that they all used curious forms of speech. "I just was
too tired to get up this morning," a girl who had actually gotten
up would say, or someone would comment upon a late train: "The old
train actually never did get here!"

After a while he took Nancy to lunch once or twice, and one day
took her to the Plaza, where his mother happened to be staying
with Cousin Mary Winthrop and Cousin Anna Baldwin, and his mother
said that Nancy was a sweet, lovely girl. Bert had quite a thrill
when he saw the familiar, beautiful face turned seriously and with
pretty concern toward his mother, and he liked Nancy's composure
among the rather formal older women. She managed her tea and her