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 Then, with a sudden burst of magnanimity, the old man added, "We'll forget that wretched conductoring business as fast as possible; but I will say, Dick, that you did it 'devilish well.

"And nothing 'became him like the leaving it, Mrs. Spencer added, with glistening eyes, as she laid her hand gently on Dick's bandaged arm.

"Ah, Dick, you beggar," said his father rather huskily, and getting up from his chair with the instinct of flight, "that's something we can't talk about."

"Oh, I say," Dick cried, growing very red in the face, "don't be so awful good to a fellow. I ought to have been thrashed."

And all having thus made a clean breast of the matter, these three warm-hearted people began to feel a little shamefaced, and with one accord endeavored to dispel the emotions which their Puritan blood made them shy of acknowledging.

Then Dick told his father and mother about Julie.