ll
not have any trifling. A girl's reputation is certainly worth more than
several hats and rain-coats, and I _know_ she has not taken them."

He walked from the dining-room and from the house in angry dignity, to the
astonishment of his mother and sister, to whom he was usually courtesy
itself. Consulting him about household matters was as a rule merely a
form, for he almost never interfered. The two women looked at each other
in startled bewilderment.

"Mother," said Cornelia, "you don't suppose he can have fallen in love
with Norah, do you? Why, she's Irish and freckled! And Tryon has always
been so fastidious!"

"Cornelia! How dare you suggest such a thing? Tryon is a _Dunham_.
Whatever else a Dunham may or may not do, he never does anything low or
unrefined."

The small, prim, stylish mother looked quite regal in her aristocratic
rage.

"But, Mother, one reads such dreadful things in the papers now. Of course
Tryon would never _marry_ any one like that, but----"

"Cornelia!"--her mother's voice had almost reached a patrician scream--"I
forbid you to mention the subject again. I cannot think where you learned
to voice such thoughts."

"Well, my goodness, Mother, I don't mean anything, only I do wish I had
my hat. I always did like all black. I can't imagine what ails Try, if it
isn't that."

Tryon Dunham took his way to his office much perturbed in mind.
Perplexities seemed to be thickening about him. With the dawn of the
morning had come that sterner common-sense which told him he was a fool
for having taken up with a strange young woman on the street, who was so
evidently flying from justice. He had deceived not only his intimate
friends by palming her off as a fit companion for them, but his mother and
sister. He had practically stolen their garments, and had squandered more
than fifty dollars of his own money. And what had he to show for all this?
The memory of a sweet face, the lingering beauty of the name "Mary" when
she bade him good-by, and a diamond ring. The