“How did these puppies know her?” Everard asked himself, as he leaned against the gate; then he remembered having heard that one of them had spent a little time in Holburton, and probably he was in the habit of going there occasionally, and had taken the others with him. At all events she seemed to know them well, and they were in the full tide of flattery and mirth when his ring broke the spell, and he was ushered into the parlor. “Oh, I am so glad to see you!” Josey exclaimed, coming gracefully forward, and giving him both her hands, an act which was noted by the juniors and sophomores, and mentally resented. What business had that grave, dignified Forrest there, and why should Miss Fleming greet him so cordially, and where did she know him anyway? They had heard he was very wealthy, and that he once was very fast and wild, but something had changed him entirely, and transformed him into a sober, reticent, and, as they believed, very proud and stingy young man, whose perfectly correct behavior was a living rebuke to themselves. He was not popular with their set, and they showed it in their faces, and pulled at their cravats, and fingered the bouquets in their button-holes, and stood round awkwardly, while he talked with Josey, and asked her of her journey, and her mother and Agnes, and answered her questions about the exercises the next day, and the best place for her to sit. “Oh, we will arrange that; we will see that you have a good seat,” the juniors and sophomores echoed in chorus; and with a slight sneer, perceptible to Josey, on his face, Everard said to her: “I do not see that there is any chance for me to offer you any attention, you seem so well provided for.” Josey bit her lip with vexation, for though she was delighted to have so many admirers at her side, she would far rather have been cared for particularly by this husband, of whom she was beginning to be a good deal afraid. He was so greatly changed that she could not understand him at all, or guess what was passing in his mind, and when at last he rose to go she said to him almost beseechingly: “I hope I shall see you to-morrow.” “Possibly, though I shall be very busy,” was his reply; and just then one of the juniors said to him: “By the way, Forrest, who is that fine-looking, elderly gentleman I saw with you this evening? Your father?” “Yes, my father,” Everard replied, feeling a desire to throttle the young man, and glancing involuntarily at Josephine, over whom a curious change had come. The was a blood-red spot on her cheeks, and an unnatural glitter in her eyes, as she said to the quartette around her: “Excuse me a moment. I have just thought of something which I particularly wish to say to Mr. Forrest.”