ith a lot of fellers and cook some eggs in the top of
a paste-board hat box. Ever cook them that way? It's a world beater.
Just break the eggs in the lid of the box and put it on the stove and
there you are. Finest stuff you ever eat. But while you're eating you
mustn't let them tell that jug story. Couldn't eat a bite after that.
Well, I leave you here."

Fearing that the operator's "rag" might fail in the strict enforcement
of the regulations that had been thrown about the night-time movements
of her husband, that he might break out of the circle of his wife's
fondness and call on me at the tavern, I left that place soon after
supper and resumed my walk about the town. In some distant place where
the land was dry a shower of rain had fallen, for the air was quickened
with the coming of that dusty, delicious smell, that reminiscent incense
which more than the perfume of flower or shrub takes us back to the
lanes and the sweet loitering places of youth. Happiness will not bear a
close inspection; to be flawless it must be viewed from a distance--we
must look forward to something longed for, or backward to some time
remembered; and my happiness on this night was not perfect, for a sense
of loneliness curdled it with regret, but here and there, as I walked
along, I found myself in an ecstasy--my nerves thrilled one another like
crossed wires, electrified. I knew that it might be a long time before I
should hear from Guinea, but I was still drunk with the newness of the
feeling that she loved me.

Prayer-meeting bells were ringing, and old men and old women came out of
the dark shadow of the trees, into the light that burned in front of a
church--hearts that with age were slow and heavy, praying for the
blessing of an Infinite Mystery. I entered the church and knelt down to
pray, for I am not so advanced a thinker as the man who questions the
existence of God; but I must admit that my thoughts were far away from
the mumblings that I heard about me, far, indeed, from the mutterings of
my own lips; and so I went out and sniffed the prayer of nature, the
smell of rain that came from far off down the dusty road.

Early the next morning I went to Conkwright's office, to tell him that
for a time I preferred to study in the country. The old man was walking
up and down the room, with his hands behind him.

"Did you find that woman?" he asked.

"Yes, and I let no one see me."

"Good. You gave her the twenty dollars, and--is t