ure with himself a star, in which, bolting through one taxi door and out another with a shotgun in his hand, he had valiantly pursued a youth who had, miraculously, found the cr

th hurt concession to certain talk of indolence the night before, he donned a painter's smock and, fille

er did not feel at liberty to divulge. Frankly he was pledged to silen

andles. A future of handles loomed drearily ahead. Brian could talk of disorder all he chose. Half of it was bouillon cups. Bitterly resenting the reproach they seemed to embody, stacked there upon the sill, Kenny passionately desired to sweep them out of the window once and for all. The desire of the moment, ever

ental and refused to be sorry. Afterward he admitted to Garry, it was difficult to believe that one spontaneous ebullition of a nature not unte

intent upon china remnants whose freaks of shape seemed to paralyze him into moments of agreeable interest. Kenny at four refused an invitation to tea and waited in growing gloom for Reynolds, a dealer who, prodded alway

careful toilet, donned a coat with a foreign looking waist-line, rather high, and experimented with a new and picturesque stock that fastened beneath his tie with a jeweled link. As six o'clock arrived a

ed, Kenny, opening the door, stared at Whitaker in

thought of course it would be Re

ssed. He merely blinked his

. Brian called the uncurried quadruped a plush horse. Kenny, remembered Whitaker, had searched with tragic eyes for an invited editor who had recklessly agreed to pay in advance for an excursion of Kenny's into illustrating

taker. "It's raining." Kenny regarded

sted,"

ut and buy something. I'd rather

ciously ban

bit," he added, "we

excitedly for the chees

esponsible. A man may work himself to death and wait in the grave for his money. Do you wonder poor Blakelock

pation, never work. When it slipped tiresomely into the class of

ldn't be under the piano. Or would it? And don't bother anyway.

ef and piously thanked God he hadn't wa

removed an irrelevant ace of spades. Its hibernation there seemed for an instant to annoy him as well it might. There had been a furore in whist about it barely a

eason, though he was constrained and impatient and feverishly active, Kenny avoided the subject of Bri

want to eat i

me to

stered Kenny, "

rki

r. When he has money enough he plans to tramp off into God's green world of spring to get himself in trim. Says he's

a ragged napkin in his hand, "you me

cracker over the alcohol flame. "I pre

led, Kenny obeyed

credulous arch of Kenny's eyebrows. "Where Brian is, where he will be, I don't propose to tell you, now or at a

enny and thumped upon

ntly reassembl

k not,"

blazed Kenny. "You're here

w facts out of my system for your own good and Br

nds with a reminiscen

e repeated

rd the truth as something sacred, to be h

sullenly to tel

here for a good many reasons. In t

"you are no judge of that. I, K

ker bluntly, "for you've made a m

rned a d

u m

ance calm and level, "that as a parent

s how many medals of distinction, could fail at anything, was a new thought, bewildering and bitter. This time he escaped from the t

t propose to talk while you roam a

He looked a

fairly," said Whitaker. "Why as a

el

se of your failure is, I think, yo

at him in ast

old a Celtic tale of some golden islands-Ti

nny said perversely

ears that seemed but three," reminded Whitaker. "Well, no matter. The point is

r and teeth. It is also true that I am the respectable if unsuccessf

isn't always a matter of years. It's a state of being. Sometimes it's an affliction and sometimes a gift. Sometimes it's chronic and sometimes it's contagious enough

interest in his eyes. "You've an undeniable

acteristic of highly temp

O'Neills," put in Kenn

mselves with amazing skill. I mean just this:

ke to know, an essential

life, John, to parent somebody else with skill?" The wo

like Kenny, he reflected, to find an unexpected loo

he said, "wreck the lives of others. Bria

"you mean I've tried to wreck the life of my own

mean merely that you were accid

s!" roared Kenny

for that," ag

for

ures," went on Whitaker, ignoring Kenny's outraged sputter, "when he couldn

ohn, you can see for yourself. I worry

ve solved it. I

aid Kenny w

you could afford to be gracious. There are some,

joyment with Whitaker aro

rying in the extreme. He lost his temper and sai

ad a visionary faith, would have linked him to you in a sort of artisti

h

Kenny, his

and the host of petty things that maddened Brian to the point of distraction, it's unnecessary for me to speak. You must know that your happy-go-lucky self-indulgence more often than not has spelled discomfort of a definite sort for Brian. You're generous, I'll admit. Generous to a fault. But

gotten on so well. Kenny, affronted, w

imploring, "you don't-you can't m

as he never read all of a letter unless it was asterisked and unde

e you been

lied

wrathfully, "isn't coming ba

unchristian melee of officiousness and black ingratitude. He recounted the events of the night before with stinging sarcasm in proof of Brian's regularity. He ended magnificently by blaming Brian f

precisely like him to pick out that damned psaltery there with the crooked stick? I mean-wasn't it like him to pick o

ite of himself. The ps

h with hair-splitting piety-Brian had that very day

aid Whitaker, mystified

old Garry Rittenhouse he'd gone up to Reynolds to collect so

quite gone, "are you mad? How on eart

f he'd come home as a lad should, I needn't

edly threw u

must experience when Garry learned the truth. At a familiar climax of self-glorification, in which Kenny claimed he h

t in a dangerou

Even inspiration was likely to be chaotic and futuristic. Small blame to Brian if he resented it all. To-morrow, if Reynolds deigned to appear with his check, he would summon Mrs. Haggerty, and the studio should have a clean

e object sought defied his fevered efforts to unearth it and with teeth set, he

lephon

oice, "what in Heaven's name ar

napped Kenny and banged the receiver into the hook

it under a model stand and wiping his forehead anchore

arry, who came at once, wondering wryly if Bria

nny at once, "that Brian didn't go

y st

dignant. "Garry, what's wrong?" he demanded. "What on earth is it? Why couldn't things have gone on as they were, without God knows how many peopl

rting a new cycle. Jan could tell you. He talks a lot ab

h an over-supply of hair and teeth, afflicted with hairbrained, unquenchable youth. I'd be a perennial in the Land of the Young and could hobnob indefinitely with

looked

you talking a

ccidental success at wrecking Brian's. I'm full of cobwebs. I damn irrefutable things and I've forced B

y. "You're about as l

back of all this turmoil? What's the real reason for Brian's brain-storm?

," reminded Garry. "It's just

thumped the table. "Garry, I don't lie. I swear I don't. I hate a liar. I mean a dishonorable liar.

on!" admit

stered his sincere regret-that fern-at the need of pawning Brian's fishing rods and g

anding the impulse, and went to bed. And dreaming as usual, he seemed to be hunting cobwebs with a gun made of ferns. He found them draped over huge pillars of ice, marked in

visited by Far Darrig, the G