st night, but there had been such a long time of WANTING
things; and now--and now grandfather and I can go--"

"You're going, too!" Joe chuckled.

"It's heartless, I suppose, but I've settled it! We're going--"

"_I_ know," he cried. "You've told me a thousand times what HE'S
said--ten times a thousand. You're going to Paris!"

"Paris! Yes, that's it. To Paris, where he can see at last how the
great ones have painted,--where the others can show him! To Paris,
where we can study together, where he can learn how to put the pictures
he sees upon canvas, and where I--"

"Go on," Joe encouraged her. "I want to hear you say it. You don't
mean that you're going to study painting; you mean that you're going to
learn how to make such fellows as Eugene ask you to dance. Go ahead
and SAY it!"

"Yes--to learn how to DRESS!" she said.

Joe was silent for a moment. Then he rose and took the ragged overcoat
from the back of his chair. "Where's that muffler?" he asked.

She brought it from where she had placed it to dry, behind the stove.

"Joe," she said, huskily, "can't you wait till--"

"Till the estate is settled and you can coax your grandfather to--"

"No, no! But you could go with us."

"To Paris?"

"He would take you as his secretary."

"Aha!" Joe's voice rang out gayly as he rose, refreshed by the coffee,
toast, and warmth she had given him. "You've been story-reading,
Ariel, like Eugene! 'Secretary'!"

"Please, Joe!"

"Where's my tin dinner-pail?" He found it himself upon the table where
he had set it down. "I'm going to earn a dishonest living," he went on.
"I have an engagement to take a freight at a water-tank that's a friend
of mine, half a mile south of the yards. Thank God, I'm going to get
away from Canaan!"

"Wait, Joe!" She caught at his sleeve. "I want you to--"

He had swung out of the room and was already at the front-door. She
followed him closely.

"Good-bye, Ariel!"

"No, no! WAIT, Joe!"

He took her right hand in his own, and gave it a manly shake. "It's
all right," he said.

He threw open the door and stepped out, but she sought to detain him.
"Oh, have you GOT to go?" she cried.

"Don't you ever worry about me." He bent his head to the storm as he
sprang down the steps, and snow-wreaths swirled between them.

He disappeared in a white whirlwind.

She stood for several minutes shivering in the doorway. Then it came
to her that she would not know where to w