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 very old pair of corduroys, and beside him a vivacious little girl, who was playing an almost inaudible accompaniment on a banjo she held across her knee to Tommy's conversation.

Mrs. Bliss, kindly faced, with gray hair and a young girlish figure, welcomed the newcomers, with a little reproach to her son for having been so late.

"I have heard about you, Mr. Hart," she said, extending her hand across the table.

"Oh! And Mr. Minton told us about your adventure with the proctor," put in Miss Hollingsworth.

Hart looked reproachfully at the half-back, but, failing to catch his eye, he answered, flushing:

"I am rather glad the faculty did not hear of it. I am afraid it was very foolish."

"Why, I think it was splendid," said Miss Bliss.

Hart did not know what to reply to this, and he took the cup of tea that Mrs. Bliss extended to him, wondering why she had slipped a slice of lemon in it.

An old colored man, with gray hair and a dignified family-servant countenance, came from the bedroom. The room was so crowded that