go on a loaf for a month and
fool with those who play, or go home to bed and back to work in the
morning. You think the idea will come some day whenever it gets ready,
and that there is precious little use in slaving away on a one franc
fifty dejeuner."

"Don't you think of home, America, and us who are anxious for you?"

"It seems so far away; and do you care unless I make a strike?"

The girl was silent; her face was turned away while she played with
his answer.

"You know we do," shielding herself with a neutral plural.

"There's the other side," the young man's voice sounded out more
buoyantly.

"You go around to some friends' studio and see what they are up to,
and get ideas and go home with more spirit; or something good comes
along, a picture is accepted, an order comes in. You think you have
got there all right and it's only the question of a little patience.
There's a good dinner or a little trip in the country--it's fine
around Paris you know. Then I think of coming home with some kind of a
rep., and how all of you will be glad--_you_ at any rate, Miss
Thornton?"

The doctor sighed and crept away.

"The condition for the fever," he muttered.

X

When he had entered his study he sat down to think. His man announced
a patient, but the doctor made no reply. Suddenly he glanced up at the
waiting servant.

"Will you tell Mr. Long as he leaves that I wish to speak to him."

Then he went on thinking. Soon there was a knock, and Long came into
his study. The doctor motioned to the chair he had just left, and,
reaching for a box of cigars, took one and lit it. Long watched him
expectantly.

"Shall you stay on here much longer?" the doctor asked at last, in his
usual composed manner.

"Oh, I don't much know. I want to get back to Paris in the winter
if----"

"Don't bother about that," the doctor interrupted him, hastily. "You
can trust me to find the amount, you know, until you are squarely on
your feet; only," his voice grew sharper, "you won't do much here. You
should go at once."

The young man stared.

"Sail next week," the doctor continued, blandly, but fixing his eyes
steadily on Long's face.

"I don't know that I can accept----"

The older man waved his hand hastily.

"You can from me. I have been your father for a good many years."

There was a pause. Then Long blushed slowly. "I don't know that I
can," he said at length. "Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?" It
was t