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These sympathetic women had unanimously set their expectation in so roic news of Noble would have surprised them little But if the truth of his whereabouts could have been ether at as developing virtually into his wake, with Herbert as a compulsory participant, they would have turned the session into a riot of amazement Noble was in the very last place (they would have said, when calmer) where anybody in the world could have even ht about it No one could have expected to find Noble to-night inside the old, four-square brick house of H I Atwater, Senior, chief of the Atwaters and father of too gentle Julia Moreover, Mr Atwater himself was not at present in the house; he had closed and locked it the day before, giving the servants a week's vacation and telling theone out of town to look over a ho And yet, as the ent on, there was a light in the house, and under that light sat Noble Dill

Returning ho paper within his hand, Noble had changed his shoes and his tie He was but a mechanism; he had no motive The shoes he put on were no better than those he took off; the fresh tie was no lovelier than the one he had worn; nor had it even the lucidity to be a purple one, as the banner of grief No; his action was, if so viewed, "crazy," as Aunt Fanny had called it Agitation first took this fore of dress are so closely allied; and in happier days, when Noble had co, he usually changed his clothes No doubt there is some faint tracery here, probably too indistinct to repay contemplation

When he left the house he walked rapidly don, and toward the end of this one- the railway station, no one thought him eccentric He was, however, for when he entered the station he went to a bench and sat looking upward for more than ten minutes before he rose, went to a ticketand asked for a time-table

"What road?" the clerk inquired

"All points South," said Noble

He placed the time-table, still folded, in his pocket, rested an elbow on the brass apron of the , and would have given hied toto buy tickets, had for ed their protests, even going so far as to inquire: "For heaven's sakes, can't you let these folk buy their tickets?" And since Noble still did not ot no feet?"