The Family
lian began to be jealous of him. He had been almost a member of the family for two years, and she
had never found fault with the boy. But after the
Professor began to take Tom up to the study and
talk over his work with him, began to make a companion of him, then Mrs. St. Peter withdrew her
favour. She could change like that; friendship was
not a matter of habit with her. And when she was
through with anyone, she of course found reasons
for her fickleness. Tom, she reminded her husband,
was far from frank, though he had such an open
manner. He had been consistently reserved about
his own affairs, and she could not believe the facts
he withheld were altogether creditable. They had
always known he had a secret, something to do with
the mysterious Rodney Blake and the bank account
in New Mexico upon which he was not at liberty to
draw. The young man must have felt the change in
her, for he began that winter to make his work a
pretext for coming to the house less often. He
and St. Peter now met in the alcove behind the
Professor’s lecture room at the university.
One Sunday, shortly before Tom’s Commencement, he came to the house to ask Rosamond to go to the senior dance with him. The family were having tea in the garden; a few days of intensely warm weather had come on and hurried the roses into bloom. Rosamond happened to ask Tom, who sat in his white flannels, fanning himself with
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