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tim of sharp practice, of one who gave much and received nothing. And that was something the village could never forgive.

Abner wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say. He turned and went silently out into the hallway, which was slightly cooler than Nessie's own room. Apart from his embarrassment, he was genuinely glad to be away from her. He walked as noiselessly as he could down the hallway and down the stairs.

At the bottom of the steps he saw, with a certain apprehension, Miss Scovell stationed with cap and duster. She had a look of having been standing there for an hour or more. Now she said with a kind of grim solemnity, "You stay up in yore room a good deal, Abner."

Abner was so disconcerted that all he could do was to answer with a bluntness he did not feel, "Well—it's my room."

Miss Scovell disregarded this. "Was you talkin' to somebody up there?—I thought I heard you talkin'."

"I guess I was talkin' to myse'f." Abner was so confused he could hardly continue down the steps past the woman into the street.

In her room above, Nessie listened with a bloodless face to this conversation which floated up the hallway.