ling. If you'd rather come back to the
studio and free-lance, I--I want you to know--" he gulped--"that
things are different. There's order there and the--the chairs are
cleared. Never a chair but what you can sit down on without staring
behind you. You wished that, Brian--"

Brian turned his head.

"Yes," he said. There were tears and laughter in his voice.

"The money and clothes I borrowed," went on Kenny fervidly, "are paid
back. The clothes are safe in a new chiffonier and here's the key. I
sealed it in an envelope and well I did. I was badly needin' some
things you had and Pietro went out and bought them for me. As for my
temper, it's a lot better. A lot! Sid marvels at it. I--I do myself.
It all comes from the hell up there on the ridge with Adam." He drew a
long breath. "I've a record of work that will fill you with pride.
And though I seem to have a lot of money, I haven't bought a foolish
thing since the corncrib. There's plebeian regularity enough in my
money affairs now, Brian, to please even you! Though I'm havin' a bit
of a struggle with my check book. You can see for yourself, can't you,
Brian, 'twould not be the disorderly Bohemia you seem to hate? 'Twould
not be hand-to-mouth. Mind, I'm not seekin' to persuade you. So help
me God, I--I want you to do just what you want to do yourself--"

"Kenny," said Brian dangerously, "if you go on one second more, you'll
have me sniffling--"

Horrified and guilty, Kenny bolted for the door, his hand clenched in
his hair.

"One thing more, Brian," he said, wheeling, "I--I've got to say it.
I've anchored that damned stick to the psaltery with a shoestring.
We--we couldn't lose it!"

And closing the door, Kenny again wiped his forehead, remembering sadly
that he had planned to wind his son around his finger and induce him to
return. It had been the trend of all his preparation and resolve. And
now--what? He had choked back his inclination and begged Brian, with
impassioned sincerity, to do precisely what would please him most.

He wondered why the anticlimax brought him--peace.

When Doctor Cole arrived an hour later he found the shack in turmoil.
The truant hour of laughter and excitement, Kenny told him in a panic
of remorse, had sharpened Brian's pain. His pulse was galloping. With
a sigh the little doctor drugged his tossing patient into troubled
sleep.

Again through a cloud of flower-spotted purple shot now with gleams of
l