"Why not? Fenie is the sweetest creature that I know of, except you, and if Harry can or will keep away from her he's not half the man I take him to be." "But he certainly has some self-respect?" "Yes, far too much to be discouraged by a single rebuff. Do you suppose I'd have lost you through any such reason as you think is keeping him away at present? I suppose he may be feeling dismal, poor fellow, but at the same time he's learning how much he cares for Fenie, which isn't a bad sort of knowledge for a young man to have. As to Fenie----" "Sh--h--! I didn't mean to tell you about her, for the secret is hers, not mine, and----" "But you couldn't keep anything from your husband, oh? Well, this heart is a safe place to come to with confidences." "Phil, dear. Do be serious a moment!" "I never was more serious in my life, my dear. Haven't I just ruined the last nap to which I was entitled? As to the young people, we'll have Harry and his sister to dinner as soon as you like. The sister will come, because she likes your dinners, your sister and you; Harry will come rather than explain to his sister. He and Fenie will feel so uncomfortable at first that they will be unusually affable to each other, and within half an hour they will be far better friends than ever before. Don't you see?" "Upon my word," exclaimed Trif, with an impulsive kiss, "you're a born match-maker." "Pshaw," exclaimed Phil, pretending not to be delighted with the compliment, "I'm merely a common-sense judge of human nature. If you'll only keep your irrepressible baby from hearing things in the meantime, and saying them to the wrong people, everything will go well." "I'm sure I can't imagine how she can make any trouble. I'm sure that Fenie has given her cautions enough during the last week, to make the child afraid to say a word about anything to anyone who shouldn't hear it. At least once an hour, all day long, it has been 'Trixy, don't'--and 'Trixy, don't'--and----" "Don't what, mamma?" drawled a gentle voice from a crib near the bed. "Nothing, dear. Go to sleep again." The remaining conversation between husband and wife was conducted in soft whispers. Several hours later Harry Trewman's sister Kate dropped in, "just for a moment." Kate was a wide-awake young woman, several years Fenie's senior. She had seen that something was troubling her brother, and it took very little time for her to determine that Fenie was the something. In Kate's opinion Harry, although little more than a year younger than she, was a mere boy who needed sisterly management, and Kate was not the woman to shirk any family duty. Trif and Fenie chanced to be out shopping, and Kate was departing when Trixy came through the hall with some doll's garments which had just been laundered. Each looked at the other inquiringly, and Trixy said: "Did you bring it?" "Bring what, Trixy?"