| PAGE | |
| "'Alec,' he said, pausing in the doorway, 'what's a green goods man?'" (see page [75]) | [Frontispiece] |
| "'You're bound to hear it sometime'" | [19] |
| "'The lord has certainly sent you, Dick'" | [57] |
| "He made several rapid calculations on the back of the envelope" | [109] |
| "'It's the first money I ever earned in my life,' she said, gleefully" | [117] |
| "His hand went up involuntarily toward his hat" | [145] |
| "He blurted out his trouble in broken sentences" | [161] |
| "'It was that unlucky gold coin'" | [177] |
FLIP'S "ISLANDS OF
PROVIDENCE"
CHAPTER I.
Carefully locking the door of his little gable bedroom, Alec Stoker put down the cup of hot water he carried, and peered into the mirror above his wash-stand. Then, although he had come up-stairs fully determined to attempt his first shave, he stood irresolute, stroking the almost imperceptible down on his boyish lip and chin.
"It does make me look older, that's a fact," he muttered to his reflection in the glass. "Maybe I'd better not cut it off until I've had my interview with the agent. The older I look, the more likely he'll be to trust me with a responsible position. Still," he continued, surveying himself critically, "I might make a more favourable impression if I had that 'well-groomed' look the papers lay so much stress on nowadays, and I could mention in a careless, offhand way something about having just shaved."
It was not yet dark out-of-doors, but after a few minutes of further deliberation, Alec pulled down the blind over his window and lighted the lamp. Then, opening a box that he took from his bureau, he drew out his Grandfather Macklin's razor and ivory-handled shaving-brush.