inct of his guest was uppermost, he was as curious as a woman. His questions, put with the sad, querulo

ured Kenny to hi

harp eye

he quivered. "Yo

hen I told you you were drinking too much

purred Adam with a chuckle. "You

s rankled in the old man's mind and

ked too much, unaware that Adam, with fiendish insight,

nd watch the others. That's the way you've kept your youth. You never linger on the things that prove unpleasant. You think life an individual adventure to be lived the way you choose. It isn't. It's a link in a chain that clanks. You can't escape. You won't escape. You're a pla

stumbled out of the sittin

re in the studio with Whitaker's arraignment ringing in his ears, he had been conscious of a terror he refused to face, a curious inner crash

o Garry-and his barbs stung. That terror of misgiving, lulled into quietude here in the peace and charm of his l

Adam to-night had fused the

d into utter collapse. It seemed to him as he walked the floor in a tumult of hurt pride, that the world must accept the man he knew himself to be, the man whose light-hearted existence he loved to dramatize, a brilliant painter wit

if it chose. He was big enough, h

tebook and wrote a sarcastic summary of his sho

ed forever, thanks to Whitaker's meddling tongue. Never again would Kenny lay himself open to misinterpretati

e wrote next and added airily after

spons

parent." This

arn something of the p

titude towar

lebeian regularity in mon

o sit down on with

an's money an

s racket, some fishing

ook over

ncy to i

aker analysis, which dovetailed in the similarity of their venom, the details might, he fancied with a lifting of hi

felt better. In irresponsibility he read, agreeably, needful temperament. And his romantic attitude towar

ngly he could refute each item, an unguarded perusal when he felt complacent,

nably he went after it and wrote at the end: "Life is a batt

ence startled

ad driven him out upon the road. Mocking voices rose now from the depths. Was it-could it all be true? The shock of the thought was cataclysmic and he longed for the self-respect and confidence in which he had basked that night in Hannah's kitchen. Must the world

ustify whatever was most conducive to his comfort and his inclination. His pilgrimage had been farcical. He had fled from discomfort, magnifying pettiness into tragedy. And he had been disloyal to the son he loved. For there under the willow when his startled eyes had found Joan, he had passionately made up his mind to linger. Nay

ving stars and darkness, unbolted the

d and quiet. He peopled the gulf of blackness ahead with things sinister and evil in spirit like Ad

Kenny, walking through the orchard, ghosts of blossoms blew fragrantly above

shower of shadow; a grotesque ladder of bloom warm to his mind with invisible

der. Some one was climbing down. Branch after branch the climber touched wit

throbbed with

as J

orest to the south where the river curved off at a tangent and flowed directly east, Brian had had his camp. On farther Joan had never cared to go. Where did she go now in the star

ened and choked. He could n

til dawn with something new and horrible gnawing at his