"It aches a little when it rains; that's about all."
"And you never let us know anything about it till the thing was all over," was Nancy's reproach.
"What's the use of scaring you women?" Robert demanded. "You would have had hysterics and all that."
"We heard of it quick enough through the newspapers," said Jack. "Come, give us your own version of the rumpus."
"Well, the truth is,"—and the prodigal told them his tale.
"Why, you are a hero!" cried Mrs. Jack, clasping her hands.
"Hero nothing," sniffed the elder brother. "He was probably star-gazing or he wouldn't have poked his nose into an ambush."
"Right you are, brother John," Robert acknowledged, laughing.
"And how handsome he has grown, Nancy," Mrs. Jack added, with an oblique glance at her husband.
"He does look 'distangy'," that individual admitted. A handsome face always went through John's cuirass. It was all nonsense, for his wife could not have adored him more openly had he been the twin to Adonis. But, there you are; a man always wants something he can not have. John wasn't satisfied to be one of the most brilliant young men in Washington; he also wanted to be classed among the handsomest.