tay in the city,
for Lucius warningly explained: "The Captain is settling into a corner
of the bar-room with a gang of sponging blackguards around him, and
every day makes it less easy for him to break away. I'd advise going
home," he ended, quietly. "The Springs is a safer place for him now."

The hyenas were beginning to prowl around the disabled lion, and this
the faithful servant knew even better than the wife.

"All right, home we go," she replied, and the thought of "home" was both
sweet and perilous.

Haney met her decision with pathetic, instant joy. "I'm ready, I was
only waitin'," he said. "After all, your own shack is better than a
pearl palace in anny town, and it's gettin' hot besides."

Bertha parted from the Mosses with keen sorrow. Joe had come to be like
an elder brother to her--a brother and a teacher, and, next to Ben
Fordyce, was more often in her thought than any other human being. She
had lost part of her awe of him, but her affection had deepened as she
came to understand the essential manliness and simplicity of his
character. He redeemed the artist-world from the shame men like Humiston
had put upon it.

As she entered for the last time the studio in which she had spent so
many happy hours and from whose atmosphere of work and high endeavor she
had derived so much mental and moral development she was sad, and this
sadness lent a beauty to her face that it had never before attained. She
looked older, too; and contrasting her with the girl who had first
looked in at his door, Moss could scarcely believe that less than half a
year had affected this change in her. He was too keen an observer not to
know that part of this was due to a refining taste in hats and gowns,
but beneath all these superficial traits she had grown swiftly in the
expression of security and power.

He greeted her as usual with a frank nod and (his hands being free from
clay) advanced to shake hands. "Don't tell me you've come to say
good-bye."

"That's what," she curtly said. "It's up to me to take the Captain home.
He's getting into bad habits lying around this hotel."

His face clouded. "I've been afraid of that," he answered, gently. "Yes,
you'd better go home. It's harder for a man to have a good, easy time
than it is for a woman. But sit down, Julia will be in soon; you mustn't
go without seeing her."

After some further talk on trains and other common-places she became
abruptly personal. "I've been having a who