nd glanced at
his watch. It was just eight o'clock. He had nothing to do, and it was
too early for bed. Then his mind went blank again, and the pictures
began to form and vanish under his eyelids. There was nothing
distinctive about the pictures. They were always masses of leaves and
shrub-like branches shot through with hot sunshine.

A knock at the door aroused him. He was not asleep, and his mind
immediately connected the knock with a telegram, or letter, or perhaps
one of the servants bringing back clean clothes from the laundry. He was
thinking about Joe and wondering where he was, as he said, "Come in."

He was still thinking about Joe, and did not turn toward the door. He
heard it close softly. There was a long silence. He forgot that there
had been a knock at the door, and was still staring blankly before him
when he heard a woman's sob. It was involuntary, spasmodic, checked, and
stifled--he noted that as he turned about. The next instant he was on
his feet.

"Ruth!" he said, amazed and bewildered.

Her face was white and strained. She stood just inside the door, one
hand against it for support, the other pressed to her side. She extended
both hands toward him piteously, and started forward to meet him. As he
caught her hands and led her to the Morris chair he noticed how cold they
were. He drew up another chair and sat down on the broad arm of it. He
was too confused to speak. In his own mind his affair with Ruth was
closed and sealed. He felt much in the same way that he would have felt
had the Shelly Hot Springs Laundry suddenly invaded the Hotel Metropole
with a whole week's washing ready for him to pitch into. Several times
he was about to speak, and each time he hesitated.

"No one knows I am here," Ruth said in a faint voice, with an appealing
smile.

"What did you say?"

He was surprised at the sound of his own voice.

She repeated her words.

"Oh," he said, then wondered what more he could possibly say.

"I saw you come in, and I waited a few minutes."

"Oh," he said again.

He had never been so tongue-tied in his life. Positively he did not have
an idea in his head. He felt stupid and awkward, but for the life of him
he could think of nothing to say. It would have been easier had the
intrusion been the Shelly Hot Springs laundry. He could have rolled up
his sleeves and gone to work.

"And then you came in," he said finally.

She nodded, with a slightly arch ex