The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-11-15

honor bright. Ii | undertake to cure
Nell with heroic treatment, will you
aid, abet and encourage my nefarious
schemes? You needn't do much; just
stand by me. For instance, I didn't
tell her, but I have received word that
the Ellis boys will get here late to-
night instead of tomorrow afternoon.
J. want to smuggle them i'll so that
Nell won't know they are here. Will
you help me?"
Mrs. Howard looked at him serious
ly. tom, I do not wish you to do
anything to humiliate Nellie, at least
unnecessarily. Still, I think you are
right. 1t hurts me to think of caus-
ing her pain, but do think it will be
the best thing for her. have tried to
speak with her gently, but I know she
merely thought 1 was carping and I'M
kind and that we do not quite under
careless she has grown. Now be care
full, Toni"
"All right" said Tom, cheerfully.
and he was off like whirlwind.
Nellie was not quite so late as us
ual to breakfast on Saturday morn
ing perhaps because she was expect
ing Jean Fairfax, and had awakened
with more lively interest in her
everyday life. Her hair was a trif1e
reckless and she wore the short, pink
dressing-sack as she came into the
dining-room. At the door she started
CF mini.
swept over her face and neck and
tingled in the very edges of her hair.
Two strange young men sat at the
table, laughing and chatting with her
father and mother and Tom. They
were tall-Nellie particularly admired
tall men-one of them slim, with
glasses and shrewd, twinkling eyes
behind them, and the other broad
and heavy, with head of hair which
proclaimed him to be none other than
Chilly" Ellis, Toms football hero.
Tom looked up innocently as Nell,
of cruel necessity, came forward and
took her place, giving an apprehen-
sive twitch to her spreading draperies
and wishing fervently that she were
at the north pole, with that wretched
Tom and his friends at the south pole.
Tom apparently was utterly oblivious
that anything was wrong, and cheer
fully introduced his friends with an
explanatory, "They came last night,
you know
Nellie sat through her breakfast
in far from happy frame of mind.
Tom was horrid not to tell her, and
she hated that dressings sack! The
Ellis boys were nice, though. and she
frightened and tried to talk, but in
some way Tom kept the conversation
going so rapidly, only including his
parents, that she found it difficult to
say anything. Billy Ellis thought
Toms sister "jolly pretty only he
didn't care for that loose thing she
wore, and he wondered why she was
SO quiet. His brother Preston watched
her reflectively from behind his
glasses, and concluded that there was
some electricity in the domestic at
mosphere, and that Tom was prob
ably the cause of it.
Breakfast had never been so long
to Nell, and as soon afterward as
she could find her brother alone, she
cornered him Indignantly.
"Tom Howard, l think it was per-
fectly horrid of you! Why didn't you
tell me, instead of letting me come
down to breakfast looking like this?''
There were volumes of scorn in the
tone in which she designated her gen
eral appearance. Tom looked at her
in injured surprise.
"That? Why, I thought you liked
it, although must say I don't think
much of it myself. Of course 1 could
have let you know, if I'd known you
felt that way. They just came late
last night. Besides, if that rig is
good enough for us, I guess it's good
enough for other people,
Brothers can sometimes be brutally
frank. Nell colored, feeling that the
conversation was taking an unfortun
ate turn, but she had another, and
| TO her very real, grievance.
"And you were actually rude, too!
| You never give me chance to say a
word, and l had to sit there like a
wooden doll. l know they thought
me queer and stupid. You never used
to act this way"
well, l can't seem to suit you,'
said Tom, resignedly, and his sigh
was eloquent of injured virtue. 81
thought you were SO worn out and
everything from school, and you've
been so mopy all along, that 1 just
exerted myself to take your share OF
the conversation off your shoulders
You haven't talked much to us dur
ing breakfasts, you know"
"Oh, you needn't bother explain.
ing!" Nell interposed, and marched
away with all the dignity she could
command under such trying circum
stances. But there was choking
feeling in her throat, and once out
of her brothers sight she fed swift
ly to her room and wept.
"Oh, OH" she walled in the depths
of pillow. Wasn't it just too hor
rid of him? And I saw the f-footbal
| one looking at this d-dreadful thinoi