She told me of your helping her home through the storm, and of something else you had not told me, Boy: of your bringing her and Mr.Carver off the flat in the boat that day.

Why did you keep that a secret ?" "It was not worth telling." "She thought it was.

She laughed about it; said you handled the affair in a most businesslike and unsentimental way; she never felt more like a bundle of dry-goods in her life, but that that appeared to be your manner of handling people.

It was a somewhat startling manner, but very effective, she said.

I don't know what she meant by that." I knew, but I did not explain.
"You don't mean to say, Mother, that you glorified me to her for an hour ?" I demanded.
"No, indeed.