de no reply. Her revolt faded away, her spirit
wilting down into her tired flesh. Her husband was triumphant. He had
her. His eyes snapped vindictively, while his ears joyed in the sniffles
she emitted. He extracted great happiness from squelching her, and she
squelched easily these days, though it had been different in the first
years of their married life, before the brood of children and his
incessant nagging had sapped her energy.

"Well, you tell 'm to-morrow, that's all," he said. "An' I just want to
tell you, before I forget it, that you'd better send for Marian to-morrow
to take care of the children. With Tom quit, I'll have to be out on the
wagon, an' you can make up your mind to it to be down below waitin' on
the counter."

"But to-morrow's wash day," she objected weakly.

"Get up early, then, an' do it first. I won't start out till ten
o'clock."

He crinkled the paper viciously and resumed his reading.

CHAPTER IV

Martin Eden, with blood still crawling from contact with his brother-in-
law, felt his way along the unlighted back hall and entered his room, a
tiny cubbyhole with space for a bed, a wash-stand, and one chair. Mr.
Higginbotham was too thrifty to keep a servant when his wife could do the
work. Besides, the servant's room enabled them to take in two boarders
instead of one. Martin placed the Swinburne and Browning on the chair,
took off his coat, and sat down on the bed. A screeching of asthmatic
springs greeted the weight of his body, but he did not notice them. He
started to take off his shoes, but fell to staring at the white plaster
wall opposite him, broken by long streaks of dirty brown where rain had
leaked through the roof. On this befouled background visions began to
flow and burn. He forgot his shoes and stared long, till his lips began
to move and he murmured, "Ruth."

"Ruth." He had not thought a simple sound could be so beautiful. It
delighted his ear, and he grew intoxicated with the repetition of it.
"Ruth." It was a talisman, a magic word to conjure with. Each time he
murmured it, her face shimmered before him, suffusing the foul wall with
a golden radiance. This radiance did not stop at the wall. It extended
on into infinity, and through its golden depths his soul went questing
after hers. The best that was in him was out in splendid flood. The
very thought of her ennobled and purified him, made him better, and made
him want to be better. This