g!"

Harry was about to retort angrily when Grogan seized his wrist with an
iron grip and swung him around the corner. Half dragging the young man
along with him he got him to the hotel. There Grogan succeeded in
convincing him of the folly of engaging in a street argument with a
dipsomaniac he did not know.

Meanwhile Harvey and Welcome continued their slow and stumbling journey
to the Welcome cottage. Welcome, after his interview with Harry Boland
was in a savage mood. A debauch of two days had left him virtually a mad
man. It required all of Harvey's diplomacy to get him into his house
quietly.

The lights were burning in the living room when they arrived. Harvey
convoyed his swaying companion to the back of the house, opened the door
quietly and pushed him in. Mrs. Welcome and the two girls were in the
living room, but the wind was sighing without and they heard nothing. A
storm had come up with the setting of the sun and occasional flashes of
lightning lighted the darkened room where Welcome found himself while the
thunder deadened the sound of his stumbling feet. He made his way through
the kitchen to a bedroom and sank down exhausted on a bed.

But Tom Welcome could not sleep. Every nerve in his body jangled. The
interview with young Boland, for reasons which will be apparent to the
reader later, had aroused in him a smouldering anger. He tossed
restlessly on his couch.

While he lay there he heard some one knocking at the front door. All of
his perceptions had grown abnormally keen. He heard a boy's voice and
recognized it as that of a neighbor's son.

"It's me, Jimmie," said the boy. "Pa sent me over with Elsie's veil. She
dropped it while she was out in the auto this afternoon."

He heard the door close and then the accusing voice of his wife
demanding:

"Elsie, who have you been out with, automobiling?"

"I was out this afternoon with Martin Druce," replied the girl defiantly.

"Then," went on the mother, conscious that a crisis of some sort between
her and her daughter was approaching, "you were talking to him this
evening and not to Harvey Spencer? You told me a falsehood?"

"What if I did?" Elsie's tone was low and stubborn.

Mrs. Welcome began to sob.

"Mother, mother," pleaded Patience, "Elsie didn't mean--"

"I did mean it," flared back Elsie. "I did mean it! Why shouldn't I go
autoing when I have the chance? Isn't life in Millville hard enough
without--" She paused overcome by a wave o