other lawyers would have him."

"He's not in an office," she admitted. "I didn't mean that. But he
studies a great deal. He goes to the courts all the time they're in
session, and he's bought some books of his own."

"Well--perhaps," he assented; "but they say he gambles and drinks, and
that last week Judge Pike threatened to have him arrested for throwing
dice with some negroes behind the Judge's stable."

"What of it? I'm about the only nice person in town that will have
anything to do with him--and nobody except you thinks I'M very nice!"

"Ariel! Ariel!"

"I know all about his gambling with darkies," she continued, excitedly,
her voice rising, "and I know that he goes to saloons, and that he's an
intimate friend of half the riffraff in town; and I know the reason for
it, too, because he's told me. He wants to know them, to understand
them; and he says some day they'll make him a power, and then he can
help them!"

The old man laughed helplessly. "But I can't let him bring you home,
my dear."

She came to him slowly and laid her hands upon his shoulders.
Grandfather and granddaughter were nearly of the same height, and she
looked squarely into his eyes. "Then you must say it is because you
want to come for me, not because I mustn't come with Joe."

"But I think it is a little because you mustn't come with Joe," he
answered, "especially from the Pikes'. Don't you see that it mightn't
be well for Joe himself, if the Judge should happen to see him? I
understand he warned the boy to keep away from the neighborhood
entirely or he would have him locked up for dice-throwing. The Judge
is a very influential man, you know, and as determined in matters like
this as he is irritable."

"Oh, if you put it on that ground," the girl replied, her eyes
softening, "I think you'd better come for me yourself."

"Very well, I put it on that ground," he returned, smiling upon her.

"Then I'll send Joe word and get supper," she said, kissing him.

It was the supper-hour not only for them but everywhere in Canaan, and
the cold air of the streets bore up and down and around corners the
smell of things frying. The dining-room windows of all the houses
threw bright patches on the snow of the side-yards; the windows of
other rooms, except those of the kitchens, were dark, for the rule of
the place was Puritanical in thrift, as in all things; and the good
housekeepers disputed every record of the meters with unhappy
g