petual flutter of
exaggerated sensibilities in every direction. But somehow she had put
Northwick in mind of his own mother, and he thought of the chance or the
will that had bereaved one and spared the other, and he envied the
little boy who had just died.

He considered the case of the parents who would want to make full
outward show of their grief, and he wrote Elbridge a note, to be given
him in the morning, and enclosed one of the bills he was taking from the
company; he hoped Elbridge would accept it from him towards the expenses
he must meet at such a time.

Then he wheeled his chair about to the fire and stretched his legs out
to get what rest he could before the hour of starting. He would have
liked to go to bed, but he was afraid of oversleeping himself in case
Elbridge had neglected to telephone Simpson. But he did not believe this
possible, and he had smoothly confided himself to his experience of
Elbridge's infallibility, when he started awake at the sound of bells
before the front door, and then the titter of the electric bell over his
bed in the next room. He thought it was an officer come to arrest him,
but he remembered that only his household was acquainted with the use of
that bell, and then he wondered that Simpson should have found it out.
He put on his overcoat and arctics and caught up his bag, and hurried
down stairs and out of doors. It was Elbridge who was waiting for him on
the threshold, and took his bag from him.

"Why! Where's Simpson?" he asked. "Couldn't you get him?"

"It's all right," said Elbridge, opening the door of the booby, and
gently bundling Northwick into it. "I could come just's easy as not. I
thought you'd ride better in the booby; it's a little mite chilly for
the cutter." The stars seemed points of ice in the freezing sky; the
broken snow clinked like charcoal around Elbridge's feet. He shut the
booby door and then came back and opened it slightly. "I wa'n't agoin'
to let no Simpson carry you to no train, noway."

The tears came into Northwick's eyes, and he tried to say, "Why, thank
you, Elbridge," but the door shut upon his failure, and Elbridge mounted
to his place and drove away. Northwick had been able to get out of his
house only upon condition that he should behave as if he were going to
be gone on an ordinary journey. He had to keep the same terms with
himself on the way to the station. When he got out there he said to
Elbridge, "I've left a note for you on my