Best of all was the effect upon Ruth, who fairly shone with happiness over Paul’s success. Ruth kept house for Dad and Bunny, besides what she did for Paul and herself; but it seemed to agree with her, she filled out, and her cheeks grew rosy. She had money to buy shoes and stockings and clean dresses, and Bunny noticed all of a sudden that she was quite a pretty girl. She shared Bunny’s idea that his father was a great man, and she expressed her admiration by baking pies and puddings for him, regardless of the fact that he was trying to keep his weight down! The four of them had supper together every evening, after the day’s work was done, in the Rascum bungalow with the bougainvillea vine; and then they sat out under the vine in the moonlight and talked about what they had done, and what they were going to do, and the world was certainly an interesting place to be alive in! IV It was time for Bunny to go back to school; but first he had to pay his semi-annual visit to his mother. Bunny had seen a notice in the paper, to the effect that Mrs. Andrew Wotherspoon Lang was suing for divorce on grounds of desertion. Now Mamma told him about it—her second husband had basely left her, two years after their marriage, and she had no idea where he was. She was a lonely and very sad woman, with tears in her eyes; Bunny could have no idea how hard it was, how every one tried to prey upon defenseless women. Presently, through the tears, Bunny became aware that his “pretty little Mamma” was tactfully hinting something; she would have to have a new name when she got the divorce, and she wanted to take back Dad’s name, and Bunny wasn’t quite sure whether that meant that she was to take Dad back along with his name. She asked how Dad was, and mustn’t he be lonely, and did he have any women friends? That bothered Bunny, who didn’t like to have people probing into his father’s relations with women—he wasn’t sure himself, and didn’t like to think about it. He said that Mamma would have to write to Dad, because Dad wouldn’t let him, Bunny, talk about these matters. So then some more tears ran down the pretty cheeks, and Mamma said that everybody shut her out, even her own daughter, Bertie, had refused to come and stay with her this time, and what did that mean? Bunny explained, as well as he could; his sister was selfish, he thought, and wrapped up in her worldly career; she was a young lady now, flying very high, with a fast set, and didn’t have time for any of her family.