sharply. "The Captain has no such idea--unless Gussie has given it to
him. Cyrus, my advice to you is to go home and tell your wife not to be
a goose. I'll tell her, if you want me to?"

"Oh no, no!" said Cyrus, very much frightened. "I'm afraid you'd hurt
her feelings."

"I'm afraid I should," said Dr. Lavendar.

He was so plainly out of temper that Cyrus finally slunk off,
uncomforted and afraid to meet Gussie's eye, even under its bandage of a
cologne-scented handkerchief.

However, he had to meet it, and he tried to make the best of his own
humiliation by saying that Dr. Lavendar was shocked at such an idea. "He
said father had always been so sensible; he didn't believe he would
think of such a dreadful thing. And neither do I, Gussie, honestly,"
Cyrus said.

"But Mrs. North isn't sensible," Gussie protested, "and she'll--"

"Dr. Lavendar said 'there was no fool like a middle-aged fool,'" Cyrus
agreed.

"Middle-aged! She's as old as Methuselah!"

"That's what I told him," said Cyrus.


By the end of April Old Chester smiled. How could it help it? Gussie