IT was early spring before Dr. Fenneben returned to Lagonda Ledge. Everybody thought the new line on his face was put there by the death of his brother. To those who loved him most--that is, to all Lagonda Ledge--he was growing handsomer every year, and even with this new expression his countenance wore a more kindly grace than ever before. “Norrie, your uncle was a strange man,” Fenneben declared, as he and Elinor sat in the library on the evening of his return. “Naturally, I am unlike my stepbrothers, but I have not even understood them. There were many things I learned at Joshua's bedside that I never knew of the family before. There were some things for you to know, but not now.” “I can trust you, Uncle Lloyd, to do just the right thing,” Norrie declared. The new line of sadness deepened in Lloyd Fenneben's face. “That is a hard thing to do sometimes. Your trust will help me wonderfully, however,” he replied. “My brother in his last hours made urgent requests of me and pled with me until I pledged my word to carry out his wishes. Here's where I need your trust most.” Elinor bent over her uncle and softly stroked the heavy black hair from his forehead. “Here's where I help you most, then,” she said, gently. “I have some funds, Elinor, to be yours at your graduation--not before. Believe me, dear girl, I begged of Joshua to let me turn them over to you now, but he staid obstinate to the last.” “And I don't want a thing different till I get my diploma. Not even till I get my Master's Degree for that matter,” Elinor said, playfully. “And meantime, Norrie, will you just be a college girl and drop all thought of this marrying business until you are through school?” Fenneben was hesitating a little now. “A year hence will be time enough for that.” “Most gladly,” Elinor assured him. “Then that's all for my brother's sake. Now for mine, Norrie, or for yours, rather, if my little girl has her mind all set about things after school days, I hope she will not be a flirt. Sometimes the words and acts cut deeper into other lives than we ever dream. Norrie, I know this out of the years of my own lonely life.” Elinor's eyes were dewy with tears and she bent her head until her hair touched his cheek. “I'll try to be good 'fornever,' as Bug Buler says,” she murmured. Over in the Saxon House on this same evening Vincent Burgess had come in to see Dennie about some books. “I took your advice, Dennie,” he said. “I have been a man to the extent of making myself square with Victor Burleigh, and I've felt like a free man ever since.” The look of joy and pride in Dennie's eyes thrilled him with a keen pleasure. Her eyes were of such a soft gray and her pretty wavy hair was so lustrous tonight. “Dennie, I am going to be even more of a man than you asked me to be.”