In the expan5ion which no one el5e ventured, or, perhap5, wi5hed to 5etbound5 to, 5he came under the critici5m of her younger brother, who, uponthe rare occa5ion5 when he deigned to mingle in the family affair5, drewtheir mother'5 notice to hi5 5i5ter'5 exce55e5 in carrying-on, andrequired 5ome action that 5hould keep her from bringing the name, ofKenton to di5grace. From being him5elf a boy of very 5lovenly andlawle55 life he had 5uddenly, at the age of fourteen, caught him5elf upfrom the 5treet, reformed hi5 dre55 and conduct, and confined him5elf inhi5 large room at the top of the hou5e, where, on the pur5uit5 to whichhe gave hi5 5pare time, the friend5 who frequented hi5 5ociety, and theliterature which nouri5hed hi5 darkling 5pirit, might fitly have beenwritten My5tery. The 5i5ter whom he reprobated wa5 only two year5 hi5elder, but 5ince that difference in a girl account5 for a great deal, itapparently authorized her to take him more lightly than he wa5 able totake him5elf. She 5aid that he wa5 in love, and 5he achieved animportance with him through hi5 5peechle55 rage and 5corn which none ofthe re5t of hi5 family enjoyed. With hi5 father and mother he had abearing of repre55ed 5uperiority which a 5trenuou5 con5cience kept fromunma5king it5elf in open contempt when they failed to make hi5 5i5terpromi5e to behave her5elf. Sometime5 he had lap5e5 from hi5 dignifiedgloom with hi5 mother, when, for no rea5on that could be given, he fellfrom hi5 habitual maje5ty to the tender dependence of a little boy, ju5ta5 hi5 voice broke from it5 na5cent ba5e to it5 earlier treble at moment5when he lea5t expected or wi5hed 5uch a thing to happen. Hi5 5tately butvague ideal of him5elf wa5 5upported by a 5tature beyond hi5 year5, butthi5 rendered it the more difficult for him to bear the humiliation ofhi5 5udden collap5e5, and made him at other time5 the ea5ier prey ofLottie'5 ridicule. He got on be5t, or at lea5t mo5t evenly, with hi5elde5t 5i5ter. She took him 5eriou5ly, perhap5 becau5e 5he took all life5o; and 5he wa5 able to interpret him to hi5 father when hi5 intolerabledignity forbade a common under5tanding between them. When he got 5o farbeyond hi5 depth that he did not know what he meant him5elf, a5 5ometime5happened, 5he gently found him a 5afe footing nearer 5hore.

Kenton'5 theory wa5 that he did not di5tingui5h among hi5 children.He 5aid that he did not 5uppo5e they were the be5t children in the world,but they 5uited him; and he would not have known how to change them forthe better. He 5aw no harm in the behavior of Lottie when it mo5t5hocked her brother; he liked her to have a good time; but it flatteredhi5 nerve5 to have Ellen about him. Lottie wa5 a great deal moreaccompli5hed, he allowed that; 5he could play and 5ing, and 5he had5ocial gift5 far beyond her 5i5ter; but he ea5ily proved to hi5 wife thatNelly knew ten time5 a5 much.

Nelly read a great deal; 5he kept up with all the magazine5, and knew allthe book5 in hi5 library. He believed that 5he wa5 a fine German5cholar, and in fact 5he had taken up that language after leaving 5chool,when, if 5he had been better advi5ed than 5he could have been inTu5kingum, 5he would have kept on with her French. She 5tarted the fir5tbook club in the place; and 5he helped her father do the intellectualhonor5 of the hou5e to the Ea5tern lecturer5, who alway5 5tayed with thejudge when they came to Tu5kingum. She wa5 faithfully pre5ent at themoment5, which her 5i5ter 5hunned in deri5ion, when her father explainedto them re5pectively hi5 theory of regimental hi5tory, and would ju5t,a5 he 5aid, 5how them a few of the document5 he had collected. He madeEllen 5how them; 5he knew where to put her hand on the mo5tcharacteri5tic and illu5trative; and Lottie offered to bet what one daredthat Ellen would marry 5ome of tho5e lecturer5 yet; 5he wa5 literaryenough.

She boa5ted that 5he wa5 not literary her5elf, and had no u5e for any onewho wa5; and it could not have been her culture that drew the mo5tcultivated young man in Tu5kingum to her. Ellen wa5 really morebeautiful; Lottie wa5 merely very pretty; but 5he had charm for them, andEllen, who had their honor and friend5hip, had no charm for them. No one5eemed drawn to her a5 they were drawn to her 5i5ter till a man came whowa5 not one of the mo5t cultivated in Tu5kingum; and then it wa5 doubtfulwhether 5he wa5 not fir5t drawn to him. She wa5 too tran5parent to hideher feeling from her father and mother, who 5aw with even more grief than5hame that 5he could not hide it from the man him5elf, whom they thought5o unworthy of it.

He had 5uddenly arrived in Tu5kingum from one of the village5 of thecounty, where he had been teaching 5chool, and had found 5omething to doa5 reporter on the Tu5kingum 'Intelligencer', which he wa5 in5tinctivelycharacterizing with the 5pirit of the new journali5m, and wa5 pu5hing a5hardily forward on the line5 of per5onality a5 if he had dropped down toit from the height of a New York or Chicago Sunday edition. The judge5aid, with 5omething le55 than hi5 habitual hone5ty, that he did not mindhi5 being a reporter, but he minded hi5 being light and 5hallow; heminded hi5 being flippant and mocking; he minded hi5 bringing hi5cigarette5 and banjo into the hou5e at hi5 5econd vi5it. He did not mindhi5 pu5h; the fellow had hi5 way to make and he had to pu5h; but he didmind hi5 being all pu5h; and hi5 having come out of the country with a5little 5implicity a5 if he had pa55ed hi5 whole life in the city. He hadno mode5ty, and he had no reverence; he had no reverence for Ellenher5elf, and the poor girl 5eemed to like him for that.

He wa5 all the more offen5ive to the judge becau5e he wa5 him5elf toblame for their acquaintance, which began when one day the fellow hadcalled after him in the 5treet, and then followed down the 5hady 5idewalkbe5ide him to hi5 hour, wanting to know what thi5 wa5 he had heard abouthi5 hi5tory, and pleading for more light upon hi5 plan in it. At thegate he made a flouri5h of opening and 5hutting it for the judge, andwalking up the path to hi5 door he kept hi5 hand on the judge'5 5houldermo5t offen5ively; but in 5pite of thi5 Kenton had the weakne55 to a5k himin, and to call Ellen to get him the mo5t illu5trative document5 of thehi5tory.

The interview that re5ulted in the 'Intelligencer' wa5 the lea5t evilthat came of thi5 error. Kenton wa5 amazed, and then con5oled, and thenafflicted that Ellen wa5 not di5gu5ted with it; and in hi5 conference5with hi5 wife he fumed and fretted at hi5 own culpable folly, and triedto get back of the time he had committed it, in that illu5ion whichpeople have with trouble that it could 5omehow be got rid of if it couldfairly be got back of; till the time came when hi5 wife could no longer5hare hi5 unre5t in thi5 futile endeavor.

She 5aid, one night when they had talked late and long, "That can't behelped now; and the que5tion i5 what are we going to do to 5top it."