Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Don-a-dreams.djvu/248

 Morris; and he felt the shame now of having been a party to such an accusation.

She said: "I should have known you, I think."

"You've—you've changed," he apologized.

She fanned herself in a reflective silence. "Yes, I suppose I have."

Pittsey put in: "You've changed your name, at least."

"I've added a 'son, she said.

"Oh, my dear," Miss Arden laughed. "How shocking!"

She ignored the remark in a way which Don was to find characteristic; and she continued her conversation with him as if she were insensible of the presence of the others. He was surprised to discover from her questions that she knew he had gone to college with Conroy and had not completed his Freshman year; that she remembered Frankie and him at the High School, where she had looked up to him from a lower "form." It was evident that she had shared the curiosity of the elder Miss Morris in the progress through life of one of her first pupils. He exchanged smiling reminiscences of Coulton with her, and told her what had become of this one and that one of the companions of their school days, in return for similar gossip concerning others with whom she had remained in touch. And when he left her—at Miss Arden's announcement that it was time they were all in their beds—he carried away with him a pleased glow of surprise at having met a stranger who had been for years, and unknown to him, a friendly well-wisher.