financially, but his letters to Marion had become less frequent and
less frank in regard to his own circumstances and doings. There came a
letter at last from Sir Galahad--a letter of eight pages of soul
stress and sorrow, as he would have called it, and of disingenuous
wriggling, as the world would call it--in which he explained as
delicately as was possible under the circumstances that his love for
Miss Willis had become the love of a brother for a sister, and that he
was engaged to be married to Miss Virginia Crumb, the only daughter of
Hon. Cephas I. Crumb, owner and treasurer of the Astarte Metal Works,
of Minnesota. Exit Sir Galahad! And following his perfidy Marion's
imagination evoked a vision of revenge in which she figured as the
plaintiff in a breach-of-promise suit, and had the fierce yet
melancholy joy of confronting him and his new love face to face before
a sympathizing judge and jury. But her New England conscience and her
sense of humor combined disposed of this vision in a summary fashion,
so that she let Sir Galahad off with the assurance that it was a
happiness to her that he had discovered how little he cared before it
was too late. Then her New England conscience bade her settle down to
her teaching with a grim courage, and be thankful that she had never
been unfaithful to her work. Also her sense of humor told her that she
must not assume all men to be false because Sir Galahad had been. It
was then, when she needed him sorely, that destiny introduced on the
scene Jimmy.

Jimmy was no Sir Galahad. He was a chunky, round-faced school-boy with
brown hair, which, when it had not been cut for a month, blossomed
into close, curly tangles. At first sight Jimmy was dull-eyed, and in
the class his mental processes were so slow that he had already
acquired among his mates the reputation of being stupid. The teacher
who had taught him last confided to Miss Willis that she feared Jimmy