r breathed."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I am of the earth--earthy. I have sold my birthright, I have yearned
for the flesh-pots, I have fed among--swine. I have done all of the other
things which haven't Biblical sanction. And now you expect me to write of
souls."

"I expect you to give to the world your best. You speak of your talent as
if it were a little thing. And it is not a little thing."

"Do you mean that----?"

"I mean that it is--God given."

Out of a long silence he said: "I thank you for saying that. Nobody has
ever said such a thing to me before."

He let her go then. And as she stood before her door a little later and
whispered, "Good-night," he caught her hand and held it. "Mistress
Anne--will you remember me--now and then--in your little white prayers?"

CHAPTER VIII

_In Which a Green-Eyed Monster Grips Eve._

EVELYN, coming down late on the morning after her unexpected arrival,
asked: "How did you happen to have her here, Dicky?"

"Who?"

"The little waitress?"

"Eve----" warningly.

"Well, then, the little school-teacher."

"Since when did you become a snob, Eve?"

"Don't be so sharp about it, Dicky. I'm not a snob. But you must admit
that it was rather surprising to find her here, when the last time I saw
her she was passing things at the Bower's table."

"She is a granddaughter of Cynthia Warfield."

"Who's Cynthia? I never heard of her."

"You have seen her portrait in our library."

"Which portrait?"

He led the way and showed it to her. Eve, looking at it thoughtfully,
remarked, "Why should a girl like that lower herself by serving----?"

"She probably doesn't feel that she can lower herself by anything. She is
what she is."

She shrugged. "You know as well as I that people can't do such
things--and get away with it. She may be very nice and all that----"

"She is nice."

"Well, don't lose your temper over it, and don't fall in love with her,
Dicky."

"Why not?"

"Haven't you done enough foolish things without doing--that?"

"Doing what?" ominously.

"Oh, you know what I mean," impatiently. "Aren't you ever going to come
to your senses, Dicky?"

"Suppose we don't talk of it, Eve."

She found herself wanting to talk of it. She wanted to rage and rant. She
was astonished at the primitiveness of her emotions. She had laughed her
way through life and had prided herself on the dispassionateness of her
point of view. And now it was only by the exercise