As a newspaper man I'm something of an impostor; I hope I'm only a passing pilgrim in the business." Dan faced Mrs.Bassett as he made this explanation, and he was conscious, as he turned toward the master of the house, that Bassett was observing him intently.

His gaze was so direct and searching that Harwood was disconcerted for a moment; then Bassett remarked carelessly,-- "I should think newspaper work a good training for the law.

It drills faculties that a lawyer exercises constantly." Mrs.Bassett now made it possible for Marian and young Blackford to contribute to the conversation.
"I'm going to Annapolis," announced the boy.
"You've had a change of heart," said his father, with a smile.

"It was West Point last week." "Well, it will be Annapolis next week," the lad declared; and then, as if to explain his abandonment of a military career, "In the Navy you get to see the world, and in the Army you're likely to be stuck away at some awful place on the Plains where you never see anything.

The Indians are nearly all killed anyhow." "We hear a good deal nowadays about the higher education of woman," Mrs.
Bassett remarked, "and I suppose girls should be prepared to earn their own living.