se of the November storm in the warm basement bedroom rose the steady click and purr of the sewing-machine and the chattering of a child's voice, and from outs

iously. The room was close, and even at four o'clock there was need of lights; its other occupants were only two, the child who played with the small gray and red stone blocks upon the floor, and the old woman who was peering through her glasses at the curtaining that lay across

nd the squeaking of rats about the basement entrance at night annoyed her not at all. She had her own telephone here, her own fireplace, and she was comfortably accessible for the maids-there were two maids now-for the butcher and ice-man. Between her and the kitchen was a small dark space, named by herself the "Cold Lairs," where she had a wash-stand and a small bath-tub. A bead of gas burned h

a story while she dressed, and recited poems and answered his questions. There was a game about getting all the tangles out of his hair, the father and mother tangles, and the various children, and even the dog and cat. Then for months it was a game to have her go on

ittle biscuit, and Aurora spooning out prunes from a big stone jar with her slender brown thumb getting covered with juice. His mother stirred the oat

m the big upstairs bedroom, and Miss Peet and her sister, the school-teachers, from the hall-room on that floor, and the Winchells, mother and daughter and son, in the two front rooms on the third floor, and the two clerks in the back room. Uncle John and Aunt Adele had the pleasant big back room on the middle floor, and

even Teddy, in his high-chair, would laugh violently in sympathy. All the boarders were kind to Teddy, but Uncle John was much more than kind. He brought Teddy toys from Broadway, sombreros and moccasins and pail

in velvet knickerbockers and a frilled shirt with a cocked hat under his arm. This was

n to a train, and don't you remember the big man

, Moth'?" the little boy

a big boy then, you were long

the acquaintance of his son all over again

, Adele? He remembers his sand-machi

after we came, you know. And I remember t

rious history. He had seen his wife at long intervals, sometimes with a little money, once or twice really prosperous and hopeful, once-a dreadful memory-discouraged and idle and drinking. This was the last time but one, more than a year ago. Then had come the visit when she had met

he lived with a fellow-actor at a downtown hotel, and Martie had a curious sense that he did not belong to her at all. There was about him the heavy aspect and manner of a man who has been drinking, but he told her that he was "all t

rtie awaited it philosophically. Her coal was in, anyway, or would be in, in another hour, and if the coal-drivers' strike came to pass she might sleep in

programme is Thanksgiving!"

t the Colonel and her will stay. Nice to be them that n

Nana and Mother did, Ted!" she boasted. "And come here and give hims mother seventeen kisses and hugs, you darling, adorable, fat, soft, little old monkey!" The last words were smothered in the fine, s

pretty smiling woman standing in the doorway, a wet rai

r. "I'm drenched. I don't believe

Come in, and spread those things on the heater. Sit there

nding a crushed box half full of chocolates. "The place was PACKED," she went on, crunching. "And, my dear!-coming out we were right CLOSE to Doris Beresford, in the most divine coat I ever laid eyes on! I suppose they all like to have an idea of what's going on at the other theatres. I don't believe she uses one bit of make-up; wonderful skin! There was such a mob in the car it was something terrible. A man crushed up against Ethel; she said she

gone upstairs, but Martie really liked to listen to Adele. Presently she turned on the lights, and led Teddy into the Cold Lairs, to have his face

e by three or four years, but he looked like a boy of twenty; squarely built, not tall, but giving an impression of physical power nevertheless. Martie had first thought his face odd, then interesting; now she found it strangely attractive. His eyes, between sandy lashes a

was American-born, of an English father and an Irish mother, he said. He had never been abroad, never been to college, never had any family that he remembered, except Adele. He had meant to be a "merchant sailor"-a term he seemed to like, although it conveyed only a vague impression to Marti

ope that had also really died at this time meant to him, Martie could only suspect when sh

myself. They always come to me-funniest thing! Dr. Poole was saying the other day that I had a remarkable magnetism. I said, 'I don't know about THAT,'-and I don't, Martie! I don't think I'm so magnetic, do you-'BUT,' I said, 'I really do seem t

their own valuations, and deeply admired. This one was a "wizard" at figures, and that one had "a deuce of a manner with women." John chuckled over their achievements, but she knew that he himself must be the secret wonder of the place. He might be

stupid to him, who always had a book under his arm, and to whom the first snow and the first green leaves were miracles of delight every year. He treated Adele exactly as if she had been an engaging five-year-old, and she had charming

er long dissertation upon the persons-and for Adele the world was full of them-who tried to cheat her, or who were ins

and accepted eagerly her verdict upon political affairs or the books and plays of the hour. She noticed, and was a little touched to notice, that he quoted her weeks after she had expressed herself. He brought her books and they disagreed and argued about them.

rom the Public Library; he had been

ket is thi

ou

aid my dues on the

cen

he six coppers o

t. Listen; do you want to

f you th

tion'? Of course you ought t

School," smiled Adele

as cuttin' open the chickens f' t'morrer, and she

Aurora was one of his delights. "We always say we're going to read aloud in the evenings,"

nd parlour, awaiting the opening of the dining-room door. Adele had gone up to her room, but Teddy

mell of PAINT," said

diators," Martie said hearteningly.

ore it started. It seems to me w

n, cool hands, and with a dowdy little yoke of good lace in the neck of her old silk, smiled about her sadly. Mrs. Winchell was a plump little woman who always burst out laughing as a preliminary to speech. Her daughter was eye-glassed, pretty, capable, a woman who realized perfectly, at twenty-six, that she had no charm whatever for men. She realized, too, that Mrs. Bannister, with her bronze hair and quick speech, was full of

as characteristic of her kindly relationship that she came immediately to his table. Now why hadn't he told her yesterday? He should h

ese for him to find when his room-mate and he came in tired and wet from their theatre that night. She look

you're younger than

t twenty-four!" Martie was conscious of a little

s just a little undignified," sa

!" her mother a

ent down for a match she was just getting a special delivery letter, and she looked as if she wa

de herself useful to old Mrs. Curley represented a difference in their point of view. When, in Teddy's first year, regular letters and a regular remittance from Wa

on would have advised her not to worry, nobody ever was turned out for board in these days. But Martie was too proud to appeal to them for counsel, and for other but even stronger reasons she coul

rtnight. "Run the house for me, that's the good girl," she said to Martie. "You can do it as good as I can, any day of the world! Aurora kn

waiting and worrying, and she seized the opportunity to be helpful. Chance favoured her, for during the old woman's visit the daughter in Brooklyn fell ill, and it was mid-March before the mother came home again. By that time the trembling Martie had weathered several storms, had rented the long-vacant front room, and was mo

n you buy trash. This lad here," she would indicate the splendid Teddy, with his loose dark

her, and who would not live with any of them. Mrs. Curley was not entirely dependent upon her boarding-house, but she had never been reconciled to the actual loss of money in the business. She liked to have other persons about, she

ied a boarding-house was a place where a slap-heeled woman climbed bleak stairs to tell starv

ple," she had asserted. John had given

to starve," he had su

s, I know that I would keep my little house nice; you don't have to have money to do that! But you'll always hear this talk of the unemployed-when any employer will tell you the hard thing is to get trustworthy men! The other day Ethel

, John?" Martie smiled. The ma

so rotten!

me, but she was well now, and she and Rodney had been to New York. People said that the Parkers were coining money, and Rose had absolutely everything she wanted. Colonel Frost was dead. Miss Frost looked like death-Martie had smiled at the old phrase-and Grandma Kelly was dead; Father Martin was quoted as saying that she was a sa

e? She had intended to write Sally in the old affectionate, confidential strain, and ask all the question

on that she could not grasp their meaning. The old dark house in the sunken square would know that slender, gentle presence no more. She had never f

her dinner that night, and the next day, Thursday, she had come down as usual to breakfast, and so on and on for ten long days, every hour of which was treasured now in Lydia's heart. "And poor Pa," wrote the older sister, "I must be all in all to him now; I never

ssionately concerned for the fate of a sick cat, and had appealed to her mother for help. Mrs. Monroe had been filling lamps, and her thin dark hands were oily and streaked with soot, but she had been sympathetic about the kitten, and on her advice the invalid had been wrapped in a clean cloth, and laid tende

sterns to the very flower. But the enclosed note in which John Dryden said that he knew how hard it was for her, and was as sorry as he could be, touched Ma

d financial ease, it must come soon. Her marriage was already measured by years; yet she was still a child in Wallace's hands. He could leave her thus bound and thus free; she was helpless, and she began to chafe ag

th John, she was led to accept his advice as to the appearance of the closely written sheets. It would

y, determined to go in and get it for herself. She had never been in John's place of business before. She went from the spring warmt

er. One of them called him, and Martie had a sensation of real affection as he came down, his eager, faunlike face one radiant smile. S

s just finished by our decorator on

haven't but a minut

touched the elevator bel

es. She wanted to exclaim over the rugs and chairs; John wanted to talk

, if we're really going to Coney"-Martie found his steady look a litt

t! Brewer simply came and said 'a lady'-I thought it was that woman from the hotel. I'll never forget the instant m

fort, the sweet summer day, the new flowery hat and cool pongee gown, combined to stir her blood. She forgot everything but t

e little apartment, that she and John were not alone. She remembered, with a strange, poignant contraction of her

sit that night at the table; Adele

ll keep AT it, and get RID of it! If we go to Coney to-morrow I believe I'll take it along, and go on with it; I suppose it would look funny, but I don't know why not. Ethel went to Coney last week with the Youngers in their auto; she said it was a perfect scream all the way; Tom WOULD pass everything on the road, and she said it was a scream! She says Mrs. Younger talks about herself and her house and her ser

y, and I'll show you a rug worth fif

that funny, giddy feeling I've had twice. And Miriam wants me to look at hats with her. I'll be simply dead. Miriam and I will get a bite somewhere; we're dying to try the

absent thought. She was thinking of the odd look on John's face as

t successful of their many days in the parks or on the beaches. John, Martie, and Teddy were equally fil

ay newspapers and bottles of cream waited in the doorways. Fasting women, with contented faces, chatted in the bakery and the dairy, and in the push-cart at the curb ice melted under a carpet cover. It was going to be a scorcher-said the eager boys and girls, starting off in hol

the time were primarily important: Teddy's bucket, John's camera, her own watch, must not be forgotten. There were last

. The extraordinary costumes of the boys and girls about them, the sights that filled the str

nt, I'll change to the other. I wore these shoes, because I'll tell you why: they only last one summer, anyway, and you might as well get your wear out of them. Listen, does any powder show? I simply p

r brown face, leaned toward Martie for inspection. Martie was alw

nto the bath-houses, got their bundled suits and their gray towels, and followed the attendant along the aisles that were echoing with the sound of human voices, and running with the water from wet bathing-suits. Fifteen minutes later they met again, still beaming, to cross under the damp, icy s

d as the waves caught them, and carried them off their feet. John swam we

dy staggering to and fro with a dripping pail. They liked to keep a little away from the crowd; a hundred feet away the footmarked sand was littered with newspapers, cigarette-butts, gum-wr

r, sliced tomatoes with raw onions, all served in cheap little bare rooms, at scarred little bare tables, a hundred feet from

eam by. The costumes and the types were tirelessly entertaining. At six they ordered sandwiches and beer, and Teddy had milk and toast. The uniformed band, coming out into its pagoda, burst int

s glances, John's voice, John's quiet solicitude for her comfort, had lent the day. Of course he liked her; of course he admired her; that was a fact long recog

York returning with them. Teddy slept soundly, sometimes in his mother's arms, sometimes in

Mrs. Curley to see him? Martie surrendered her loose coat and hat to the maid, p

aiting for her; she was

l me all about it, all the sickness and failure and bad luck! You're home again

mattered was that he was here, and was deep in new plans, he had a new part to work up, he was to begin reh

ish bravado was gone. He was stout, settled, curious

he had grown handsome, by George, she had a stunning figure,

to have a husband again! He bought whatever she wanted, took her proudly about. She went with him to his first rehearsals, finding the old stage atmosphere strangely exhilarat

partment in East Twenty-sixth Street. Martie inspected it

d to have her housekeeper desert her. After all, could there be a better reason for any move than that

ce was boisterously fond of his son, but he was too busy to be much with Teddy, and he wanted his wife all day and every day. So Martie