boy was worse-tempered on account of his hair. But I don't believe the
sorrel-tops, as we called them, were any more fiery than the rest of us."

Marcia did not answer at once, and then she said, with the vagueness of one
not greatly interested by the subject, "You've got a sorrel-top in your
office that's fiery enough, if she's anything like what she used to be when
she went to school."

"Hannah Morrison?"

"Yes."

"Oh, she isn't so bad. She's pretty lively, but she's very eager to learn
the business, and I guess we shall get along. I think she wants to please
me."

"_Does_ she! But she must be going on seventeen now."

"I dare say," answered the young man, carelessly, but with perfect
intelligence. "She's good-looking in her way, too."

"Oh! Then you admire red hair?"

He perceived the anxiety that the girl's pride could not keep out of her
tone, but he answered indifferently, "I'm a little too near that color
myself. I hear that red hair's coming into fashion, but I guess it's
natural I should prefer black."

She leaned back in her chair, and crushed the velvet collar of his coat
under her neck in lifting her head to stare at the high-hung mezzotints and