this cursed noise," he said to himself, and turned down a narrow
street toward the river. It occurred to him that he would go over
the covered bridge, and maybe stop and get a tumbler of ice-cream
at Mrs. Todd's. Then he would strike out into the country and
take a walk; he had nothing else to do. This vacation business
wasn't all it was cracked up to be; a man had better fun at
school; he was sick of Mercer, anyhow.

He had reached Mrs. Todd's saloon by that time, and through the
white palings of the fence he had glimpses of happy couples
sitting at marble-topped tables among the marigolds and
coreopsis, taking slow, delicious spoonfuls of ice-cream, and
gazing at each other with languishing eyes. David felt a qualm of
disgust; for the first time in his life he had no desire for ice-
cream. A boy like Blair might find it pleasant to eat ice-cream
with a lot of fellows and girls out in the garden of a toll-
house, with people looking in through the palings; but he had
outgrown such things. The idea of Blair, at his age, talking
about being in love! Blair didn't know what _love_ meant.
And as for Elizabeth, how could she fall in love with Blair? He
was two months younger than she, to begin with. "No woman ought
to marry a man younger than she is," David said; he himself, he
reflected, was much older than Elizabeth. That was how it ought
to be. The girl should always be younger than the fellow. And
anyway, Blair wasn't the kind of man for a girl like Elizabeth to
marry. "He wouldn't understand her. Elizabeth goes off at half-
cock sometimes, and Blair wouldn't know how to handle her. I
understand her, perfectly. Besides that, he's too selfish. A
woman ought not to marry a selfish man," said David. However, it
made no difference to him whom she married. If Elizabeth liked