Wally, watching from his chair, saw the smile which passed over her face.
"She'll warm up some day," he confidently told himself, with that bluntness of thought which comes to us all at times.

"See how she flared up because I danced with Helen.

Maybe if I made her jealous..." At the desk Mary picked up another paper--an old cable.

She read it, re-read it, and quietly folded it again; but for all her calmness the colour slowly mounted to her cheeks, as the recollection of odd words and phrases arose to her mind.
"Wally," she said in her quietest voice, "I'm going to ask you a question, but first you must promise to answer me truly." "Cross my heart and hope to die!" "Are you ready ?" "Quite ready." "Then did you ever hear of any one in our family named Paul ?" "Y-yes--" "Who was he ?" It was some time before he told the story, but trust a girl to make a man speak when she wishes it! He softened the recital in every possible way, but trust a girl again to read between the lines when she wants to! "And didn't he ever come back ?" she asked.
"No; you see he couldn't very well.

There was an accident out West--somebody killed--anyhow, he was blamed for it.