nt, looking down on the
upturned, laughing faces, with a hundred jocular and congratulatory
salutations shouted up at him, somebody started a cheer, and it was
taken up with thunderous good-will.

There followed the interrogation customary in such emergencies, and the
anxious inquirer was informed by four or five hundred people
simultaneously that Joe Louden was all right.

"HEAD HIM OFF!" bellowed Mike Sheehan, suddenly darting up the steps.
The shout increased, and with good reason, for he stepped quickly back
within the doors; and, retreating through the building, made good his
escape by a basement door.

He struck off into a long detour, but though he managed to evade the
crowd, he had to stop and shake hands with every third person he met.
As he came out upon Main Street again, he encountered his father.

"Howdy do, Joe?" said this laconic person, and offered his hand. They
shook, briefly. "Well," he continued, rubbing his beard, "how are ye?"

"All right, father, I think."

"Satisfied with the verdict?"

"I'd be pretty hard to please if I weren't," Joe laughed.

Mr. Louden rubbed his beard again. "I was there," he said, without
emotion.

"At the trial, you mean?"

"Yes." He offered his hand once more, and again they shook. "Well,
come around and see us," he said.

"Thank you. I will."

"Well," said Mr. Louden, "good-day, Joe."

"Good-day, father."

The young man stood looking after him with a curious smile. Then he
gave a slight start. Far up the street he saw two figures, one a
lady's, in white, with a wide white hat; the other a man's, wearing
recognizably clerical black. They seemed to be walking very slowly.

It had been a day of triumph for Joe; but in all his life he never
slept worse than he did that night.

XXVI

ANCIENT OF DAYS

He woke to the chiming of bells, and, as his eyes slowly opened, the
sorrowful people of a dream, who seemed to be bending over him,
weeping, swam back into the darkness of the night whence they had come,
and returned to the imperceptible, leaving their shadows in his heart.
Slowly he rose, stumbled into the outer room, and released the
fluttering shade; but the sunshine, springing like a golden lover
through the open window, only dazzled him, and found no answering
gladness to greet it, nor joy in the royal day it heralded.

And yet, to the newly cleaned boys on their way to midsummer morning
Sunday-school, the breath of that cool August d