he proposed to graze the horse on the roadsides.",

"While you are theorizing over the dullness of existence, with the means to go anywhere or do anything to gain new experiences!"

Avery made a gesture of weariness. "I've exhausted every approved fashion of putting in the time," he protested. "I've tried Europe, yachting, the seaside, summer boarding-but it's no use! I can't enjoy inanimate objects or the lower animals, and the people one meets are stereotyped and uninteresting. I think, sometimes, it might be interesting to-to feel such an emotion as Milray suggested, but I-I fancy I haven't got the right kind of temperament!" He looked up questioningly, his face somewhat flushed. and a tentative appeal in his eyes.

Miss Brinley met his gaze with thoughtful gravity. "I don't believe you really want to get closer to the realities," she said, "but merely to change your point of view, to analyze and dissect at shorter range.

VOL. XXXVI.-31

unless the unexpected happens,"

she finished lightly.

"And the unexpected-in this case?" "Oh, anything," she parried-"anything one of your temperament might be supposed not to do."

Avery leaned back with a sigh. "Do you know," he said, "I have an odd feeling that you know me better than I know myself; and just then-" he paused abstractedly-"just then I had a most extraordinary sensation."

"Dear me!" she ejaculated.

"Yes; I don't think I ever had such a peculiar impression. It is hard to describe-but-but I imagine it must have been something like an intuition."

"How strange!-but I thought you didn't believe in intuitions?"

"No-that is, I've never experienced

269

any; but when you were speaking and my eyes met yours, I felt a sudden-yes, a thrill, it must have been, of-expectation, as if I were on the verge of a discovery. Yes, the feeling is growing stronger that, if you will, you can help me, to get into closer touch with my fellow beings. You can tell me what is the unexpected thing that might happen."

"Oh, I couldn't begin to think," she declared; "but if you break through your environment you'll be able to find out for yourself."

"Yes," said Avery, with kindling animation, as he rose, "I must leave the beaten track, avoid the commonplace and conventional. I must find the antithesis of summer boarding, for example, and do something quite original." He paused with sudden gravity. "If you were going to be here, I'd stay," he added.

"And help me to be dull!" she laughed. "But I'm not; I'm going to the same quiet place by the sea, and by the time I come back perhaps you'll have some thrilling adventures to tell me."

II

THE Cherry Hill boarders were assembled in the rustic pavilion overlooking the

lake, their voices rising and falling in varying tones of voluble speculation as they discussed the one absorbing topic.

"I cross-questioned Sally this morning when she was doing up my room," said Mrs. Plummer, a portly middle-aged widow, "but all I could get out of her was that he arrived a week ago, and had a long talk with Mrs. Jenner, who immediately packed her trunk and started off to visit her married daughter in Colorado, leaving him to act as landlord for the summer."

"And we know absolutely nothing about him, except that his name is Avery," cried Mrs. Cortolan, in high-pitched indignation.

"And that the board is simply perfect," added Miss Abingdon, who had been listening in amused silence, and now received the instant attention of the person who talks but little. "Hadn't we better complain about getting too much for our money?" she asked, a faintly ironical inflection in the quiet ripple of her voice.

Mr. Cortolan, who was histrionic in his movements, had been walking to and fro in front of the pavilion, his hands clasped behind his back, and his head bowed in obviously deep meditation. He stopped and regarded the speaker with an appreciative twinkle in his dark eyes. "What afflicts me," said he, in mock solemnity,

"is that it's too good to last-it can't last! We were of the general opinion that Mrs. Jenner gave us fair value for our money, but great Cæsar!-did we have a fresh damask table-cloth every day, a clean napkin every meal, our bedroom towels changed whenever we turned around? Why, it's incredible!" He spread both hands outward in supplication. "Tell me," he entreated, "do I sleep; do I dream?" "It's all perfectly true," laughed Miss Abingdon, amid a chorus of assent "even the finger-bowls."

"These," began the Reverend Mr. Bridgeman ponderously," are superfluities, so to speak; but I was agreeably surprised to find that we had the choice of roast beef and roast lamb for dinner yesterday. Now Mrs. Jenner occasionally had

"Her lamb was always mutton," interjected Mrs. Cortolan shrilly.

"And the beef was always that triangular wingrib roast without undercut," hastily added Mrs. Plummer.

"I was about to say," continued the clergyman, with an increased volume of tone, "that Mrs. Jenner usually had beef of an inferior quality for dinner; lamb, so-called, occasionally; but never both meats

"Well, Mrs. Jenner had canned everything," returned Mrs. Plummer, "except potatoes and turnips."

"It is incomprehensible to me," rumbled Mr. Bridgeman, "why she should have used canned vegetables instead of fresh ones. We come to the country expecting to enjoy the fruits of the earth, as it were, and find instead the vegetables of the grocery-shelf. Now if this person proposes to substitute fresh garden produce for the tasteless, and, I suspect, unwholesome products of the canning factory, I shall appreciate the change to the best of my ability."

"It's a case of a new broom," asserted Mr. Cortolan,wielding an imaginary one with vigor; "he can't keep it up. Mrs. Jenner told me herself that if she supplied the table with fresh vegetables, she would have to engage another hired girl. It's the preparation that costs. Dump a few cans of peas into a pot, and there you are. Go into the gar

den, pick half a bushel, shell them, and most of your morning is gone." He illustrated each process with swift and graphic movements that suggested infinite practice in culinary duties; then he sat down with the air of one who has solved a problem too deep for his fellows.

Mr. Mullins, a half-fledged young newspaper reporter, nodded knowingly. "I heard a thing or two in that connection this morning," said he. "There's a small boy hired as scullion; he's to prepare vegetables and fowl, and all that sort of thing."

"Do you mean to say," inquired Cortolan, "that the new landlord gave you these details?"

"N-no," admitted Mullins, in evident embarrassment. "The fact is," he explained, in response to the searching glances focussed upon him, "I happened to pass through the dining-room when Nancy was setting the table, and—and she mentioned them."

Mr. Bridgeman looked sternly at the

speaker; Cortolan smiled and hummed a tune; the ladies exchanged glances. Mullins, though decidedly red, made a brazen effort to distract attention.

"I shouldn't wonder," he suggested, "if there's more in this thing than appears on the surface. If we get ten-dollar board for five, there's a reason for it."

Mr. Diver, a shrewd-faced father of a family, stroked his grizzled beard and scanned Mullins, approvingly. "That's what I say!" he exclaimed. "Why, the other day I handed him a dollar bill for driving us from the station, and by George! -he refused it; said there was no charge. There's something wrong!"

Mrs. Plummer turned to the clergyman. "Didn't you notice how he stared," she asked in agitation, "when you asked if his wife was experienced in cooking?-and don't you think you'd better ask him toto convince us that he's quite respectable?"

"We have really nothing to complain of," replied the clergyman soothingly, "provided he maintains the present standard of catering; and as he appears to possess exceptional qualifications, it is our plain duty to suspect no evil." Mr. Bridgeman clasped his hands across his ample figure and beamed. reassuringly upon Mrs. Plummer.

Cortolan and Mullins, who had withdrawn a short distance together, sauntered back, the latter with a broad smile on his fresh young face, the former composed and inscrutable.

"We have a theory," announced Cortolan, his eyes twinkling, "a clew to the mystery."

"Goon," cried the ladies, as he paused dramatically. "Starting from the information that Mrs. Jenner departed suddenly for Colorado, we deduce the conclusion that our landlord came from Colorado. I do not take credit for the discovery; it is due entirely to Mr. Mullins's remarkable gift of intuition."

"No, no," protested Mullins, "I—” "Later, I admit," went on Cortolan gravely, "I suggested he was likely to be a relative of Mrs. Jenner's; then I seemed to recall her alluding in rather ambiguous terms to a nephew in the West."

"I think she did-I'm sure she did," cried Mrs. Plummer-"a nephew or an uncle, or something of the kind."

"Exactly," said Cortolan. "Then we interviewed John Dunn in the barnyard at Mr. Mullins's suggestion, with the result" -he paused to stroke his moustache and hide an ironical smile-"that our suspicions were confirmed."

"You don't say so-Mr. Cortolan!" "I do John would neither say it was true nor deny it."

"How perfectly absurd!" laughed Miss Abingdon.

"Not at all," declared Mrs. Plummer. "I'm sure it's wonderful how they found it all out so quickly. I'd feel more comfortable if I knew what he had been doing in Colorado."

"We can tell you, approximately," said Cortolan. "Is it confidential, Mullins?" "No, not at all," replied Mullins, grinning.

"Then I may say that certain indications point to his having been a restaurant keeper!"

Mrs. Plummer shuddered, turning to Mr. Bridgeman. "Do you hear?" she gasped; "a restaurant-keeper!"

"Mere supposition, Mrs. Plummer."

"But-in Colorado, Mr. Bridgeman. I've heard they have dreadful dance halls in the restaurants."

Mr. Bridgeman glowered at Cortolan. "I assure you, Mrs. Plummer," he answered testily, "nothing could be more preposterous. Possibly there are dance halls in Colorado, but-but I assure you I would tolerate nothing of the kind here. In the meantime, let us be thankful for the mercies that are provided."

"I tell you the man's

either a knave or a fool," Mr. Diver broke forth, after prolonged meditation; "and I'm going to find out which when I pay my bill, if not before."

III

MR. DIVER prided himself on his knowledge of character, but in this case his usual unhesitating verdict was held in suspension, for a week's keen observation and guarded inquiries left him mystified, without even a plausible theory to account for the landlord's actions; then he changed his tactics and played his trump card.

"I'd like to know," he inquired brusquely, after paying his bill, "if there's any money in keeping boarders in this style. It seems to me you pay out about twice as much as you get in. There was a gleam of expectant triumph in his eyes. Here was a question that couldn't be dodged, and whatever the reply, he was bound to learn something. Avery stared in mild surprise. "Really," he answered, "I'm sorry I can't give the information. I haven't yet made up my

accounts."

Diver chuckled; the problem was solved. "When you do, I guess you'll find the balance on the wrong side," he remarked.

Avery regarded him with a look of concern. "I understood that the place paid a profit," he said.

"Great Scott!" ejaculated Diver. "Do you think you're running things like Mrs. Jenner?"

"Perhaps not," replied Avery dubiously. "Was it the general expectation," he asked, "that I would adhere to Mrs. Jenner's standard of catering?"

Diver replied at length, with unconcealed contempt for the landlord's incapacity, after which the latter thanked him and promised to look into the matter.

Avery was smiling over a train of thought suggested by Diver's remarks, when Miss Abingdon entered.

"Really, Mr. Avery," she said, as she laid a five dollar bill on the desk, fixing an embarrassed gaze on the open purse in her hand, "I haven't the conscience to go on taking so much for so little."

Avery finished writing the receipt, then as Miss Abingdon's eyes met his, her purse closed with a sudden snap.

"It is ample," he replied, with a smile. "Is the dissatisfaction general?"

"I'm afraid not," she laughed. "But don't you see that you can't go on adding to our luxuries indefinitely without deplorable results, both moral and physical ?"