"Not impossible, but highly improbable," laughed young LaHume, unaware that he was treading on thin ice. "My father made his start in that way, and before he died there were many who called themselves gentlemen who were glad to associate with him," declared Miss Lawrence with a warmth uncommon to her. "What did your father do?" "Really now, I did not mean anything," stammered LaHume, the red flushing through the tan of his face. It suddenly dawned on me that there was a period in the life of my father when he worked as a hired man in order to earn the money with which to marry my mother, and that from this humble start he was able finally to acquire the ancestral Smith farm, then in the possession of a more wealthy branch of the family. I made common cause with Miss Lawrence, and I did it with better grace from the fact that I resent the airs assumed by LaHume. "LaHume's father founded the roadhouse down yonder," I said, pointing towards a resort which yet goes by the LaHume name, and one which does not enjoy a reputation any too savory. Of course this is not the fault of the elder LaHume, who has since made a fortune in the hotel business. I could see that the shot went home. "I say, Smith, let's play golf and cut out this family history business," protested LaHume, who was fighting angry. "It is your shot, Miss Lawrence." "Don't you think he is handsome, Mr. Smith?" she asked. "Who; Mr. LaHume?" I returned, not averse to rubbing it into the descendant of the roadhouse keeper. "Of course not," she replied, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "I mean that lovely hired man." "He's a rustic Apollo," I said, "and it may interest our friend to know that he also combines the qualities of Hercules and Mars." And while LaHume fumed and Miss Lawrence clapped her hands I told the story of the downfall of "Big Dave" at the hands of the quiet and cleanly Wallace, making sure that the defeat of the village bully lost nothing in its telling. All the way back to the club house--we did not play out the remaining holes--Miss Lawrence plied me with questions concerning Wallace. Of course I know that her object was to punish LaHume, and she did it most effectively. She pretended to believe that there is some great romance back of Wallace's present status. She pictured him as a Scotch nobleman, or the