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Watching Plank, it occurred to hireat, cumbersome creature was not a shrewd, thrifty, self-, wistful, lonely boy, without comrades and with nowhere to play On Plank's round face there re even of the heavy, saturnine placidity of a dogged man aits his turn

Plank spoke of hi the personal note with tentative tied hiraphy appeared, e his eventless boyhood in a Pennsylvania town; his career at the high school; the dawning desire for college equipment, satisfied by his father, ned shares in the pro Deepvale Steel Plank Company; the unhappy years at Harvard--hard years, for he learned with difficulty; solitary years, for he was not sought by those whom he desired to know Then he ventured to speak of his father's growing interest in steel; theof independent plants; his own entry upon the scene on the death of his father; and--the rest--ht stand substitute as a social sponsor for hi of what he lacked in hi-for inheritance of the best could give Did Siward think so? Was the best beyond his reach? Was it hopeless for such a man as he to try? And why?

The innocent snobbery, the abashed but absolute si pits claroping laboriously through the chilly halls of Harvard toward the outer breastworks of Manhattan, interested Siward; and he said so in his pleasant ithout offence, and with a s question at the end

"Worth while?" repeated Plank, flushing heavily, "it is worth while to me I have always desired to be a part of the best that there is in my own country; and the best is here, isn't it?"

"Not necessarily," said Siward, still s "The noisiest is here, and some of the best"

"Which is the best?" inquired Plank naively

"Why, all plain people, whose education, breeding, and fortune perence, and sanity enable thehts There are such people here, and soalaxy we call society"

"That is what I wish to be part of," said Plank "Could you tell me what are the requirements?"