al misery, than it had ever been before--completely
unmanned him. He did not understand how it could; he tried to defy the
moods, but he could not. When she held his head close and caressed it,
of a sudden, in spite of himself, his breast felt thick and stuffy, and
his throat hurt him. He felt, for him, an astonishingly strange feeling,
a desire to cry, which he did his best to overcome; it shocked him so.
There then combined and conspired to defeat him a strange, rich picture
of the great world he had so recently lost, of the lovely, magnificent
world which he hoped some day to regain. He felt more poignantly at this
moment than ever he had before the degradation of the clog shoes, the
cotton shirt, the striped suit, the reputation of a convict, permanent
and not to be laid aside. He drew himself quickly away from her, turned
his back, clinched his hands, drew his muscles taut; but it was too
late. He was crying, and he could not stop.

"Oh, damn it!" he exclaimed, half angrily, half self-commiseratingly, in
combined rage and shame. "Why should I cry? What the devil's the matter
with me, anyhow?"

Aileen saw it. She fairly flung herself in front of him, seized his head
with one hand, his shabby waist with the other, and held him tight in a
grip that he could not have readily released.

"Oh, honey, honey, honey!" she exclaimed, pityingly feverishly. "I love
you, I adore you. They could cut my body into bits if it would do you
any good. To think that they should make you cry! Oh, my sweet, my
sweet, my darling boy!"

She pulled his still shaking body tighter, and with her free hand
caressed his head. She kissed his eyes, his hair, his cheeks. He pulled
himself loose again after a moment, exclaiming, "What the devil's got
into me?" but she drew him back.

"Never mind, honey darling, don't you be ashamed to cry. Cry here on my
shoulder. Cry here with me. My baby--my honey pet!"

He quieted down after a few moments, cautioning her against Bonhag, and
regaining his former composure, which he was so ashamed to have lost.

"You're a great girl, pet," he said, with a tender and yet apologetic
smile. "You're all right--all that I need--a great help to me; but don't
worry any longer about me, dear. I'm all right. It isn't as bad as you
think. How are you?"

Aileen on her part was not to be soothed so easily. His many woes,
including his wretched position here, outraged her sense of justice and
decency. To think her fine,