ng mention of his candle-burning
honorarium. To Anne, he sent a little note, the first of a long series,
wondering at himself as he wrote it, but sticking madly to his audacity,
for that queerly seemed the way to win her.

"Darling Anne," the note said. "It's all right. I'll tell you
sometime. Meanwhile you're not to worry.

"Your lover,

"ALSTON CHOATE."

XXXVIII

While the motor cars were whirling about Addington and observers were in
an ecstasy over Madame Beattie's electioneering, Reardon was the more
explicitly settling his affairs and changing his sailing from week to
week as it intermittently seemed possible to stay. He was in an
irritation of unrest when Esther did not summon him, and a panic of fear
at the prospect of her doing it. He was beginning dimly to understand
that Esther, even if the bills were to be paid, proposed to do nothing
herself about getting decently free. Reardon thought he could interpret
that, in a way that enhanced her divinity. She was too womanly, he
determined. How could a creature like her give even the necessary
evidence? If any one at that time believed sincerely in Esther's clarity
of soul, it was Reardon who had not thought much about souls until he
met her. Esther had been a wonderful influence in his life, transmuting
everyday motives until he actually stopped now to think a little over
the high emotions he was not by nature accustomed even to imagine. There
was something pathetic in his desire to better himself even in spiritual
ways. No man in Addington had attained a higher proficiency in the
practical arts of correct and comfortable living, and it was owing to
the power of Esther's fastidious reserves that he had begun to think all
women were not alike, after all. There must be something in class,
something real and uncomprehended, or such a creature as she could not
be born with a difference. When she came nearer him, when she of her own
act surrendered and he had drawn the exquisite sum of her into his
arms, he still believed in her moral perfection to an extent that made
her act most terribly moving to him. The act grew colossal, for it meant
so matchless a creature must love him unquestioningly or she could not
step outside her fine decorum. Every thought of her drew him toward her.
Every manly and also every ambitious impulse of his entire life--the
am