“How is Barbara?” Miss Toland asked dryly.

“Fine!  Mother came to me with a long tale, the other day, about her being run down, or blue, or something, but I don’t see it.  She has a dandy time.”

“Why doesn’t she marry?  Barbara must be twenty-six,” her aunt said, with directness.

“Oh, I don’t know; why don’t all the girls?  The fellows they run with are an awfully bum lot,” Jim said contentedly.  “Look at me!  Why don’t I?” he added, laughing.

“Well, why don’t you?”

“I’m waiting to settle the others off, I guess.  Besides, you know, I’ve been working like the devil!  Sally’s been worrying Mother with her affairs lately,” said Jim.

“Sally—­and who?”

“Keith Borroughs!” Jim announced, grinning.

“Keith Borroughs?  Why, he’s ten years younger!”

“He’s about three years younger, and he’s an awful fool,” said Jim, “but he’s very much in love with Sally, and she certainly seems to like it!”

“I think that’s disgusting!” said Miss Toland.  “Has he a job?”

“Job?  He’s a genius, my dear aunt.  His father pays for his music lessons, and his mother gives him an allowance.  He’s a pianist.”

“H’m!” commented the lady briefly.

“Ned has definitely announced his intention of marrying his Goldfield girl,” pursued Jim.

“Yes, I knew that.  Kill your mother!”

“It’ll just about kill her.  And the latest is Ted—­falling in love with Bob Carleton!”

“Carleton!  Not the lumber man?  But he’s fifty!”

“He’s forty-five, forty-seven perhaps.”

“But he’s married, Jim!”

“Divorced, Aunt Sanna.”

“Oh, Jim, that’s awful!” said his aunt, horrified.

“Well, it may come to nothing.  Ted’s only twenty—­I hope devoutly it will.  There—­that’s all the news!” Jim jumped up from his chair, and gave his aunt a kiss.  “Why don’t you come over and get it for yourself, now and then!  I don’t know how much there is in any of this stuff, because I use my rooms at the club a good deal, but it’s all in the wind.  That little Julia Page is a peach, isn’t she?”

“You said that once,” Miss Toland said dispassionately.  Jim grinned, unabashed.  He had been in love with one girl or another since his fourteenth year, and liked nothing so much as having his affairs of the heart discussed.

“Well, it’s true, and I’ll say it again for luck!” said he.  “Who is she?  I suppose Pius Aloysius Maloney, or some good soul who comes to teach the kids boxing, has got it all framed up with her?”

“I don’t know any Mr. Maloney,” Miss Toland answered imperturbably.  “Mr. Craig is director of the Boys’ Club, and I know he admires her, and she has another admirer, too, who comes here now and then.  But how likely she is to marry I really can’t say!  She’s an extremely ambitious girl, and she has determined to raise herself.”