"Just why should he want this East Coast job to fail?" he puzzled aloud. "He's in it, along with Elliott and Ainnesley, even if he isn't in so deep. That is, of course, assuming that he does want it to fail." The preoccupied gleam in Miss Sarah's eyes promised a reply that might be worth considering, but when it came Caleb found trouble in assimilating it. "They did look so well together," she murmured absently. "He's so much broader--and a whole head taller, too!" It didn't seem to be exactly a relevant answer, but Caleb nodded patiently. "Taller, yes," he admitted judiciously. "But he isn't half so big around." Sarah sat, fork poised, and gazed at him. "Not half so big as who?" she neglected her sentence structure. "Why--Dexter!" said Caleb. "Isn't that what we were talking about?" "Maybe you were," Miss Sarah sniffed. "But I was not discussing Dexter's height or girth either. I was referring to his daughter and--and our boy, Stephen. I was going to ask you if you thought she could be entirely disinterested in him. I don't believe any woman forgets a man who has ever thought enough of her to fight for her." "I suppose not," agreed Caleb humbly. "And I was wondering, if that argument ever came up again--I'm wondering if Archibald Wickersham wouldn't come out second best, just as he did before?" Then her brother understood. He threw back his head and laughed until Sarah's face registered a trace of vexation. "Sarah," he saluted her, "I'm a mere babe in arms when it comes to finesse, in comparison with you. But since you have introduced the subject I might remark that there are two individuals to be considered. Maybe she might be--interested--as you so delicately phrase it. But the boy--well, he's had one mighty pointed lesson, you know." But there was no mirth in Sarah's eyes. She was most serious. "That's the very thing which perplexes me," she confessed. "I was going to ask you about that. For it was hurt pride that sent him away and he hasn't forgotten the hurt, even yet. He was going to tell us, last night when I stopped him, that he hadn't written again because he wasn't certain that we wanted to hear; and he was painfully conscious of how childish it would sound in words, too. Some men quit when they are whipped once, but don't some of them refuse to recognize that they've ever been whipped at all, Cal? And then, she told me that she had asked him to her party, Friday night. If he comes I think I'll be better able to tell just what----" "He won't!" cut in Caleb flatly, and when she taxed him for it he proceeded to elaborate at considerable length the reason for his certainty. His argument was rather tight and so, just because of that, woman-fashion she believed the contrary.