me like a blow in the face. I don't think I answered.

"Sorry," he added, "but Evans says he can double up on your work and
offers to do it for two hundred dollars more."

I repeated that name Evans over and over. He was the man under me.
Then I saw my mistake. While watching the man ahead of me I had
neglected to watch the man behind me. Evans and I had been good
friends. I liked him. He was about twenty, and a hard worker.

"Well?" said Morse.

I recovered my wind.

"Good God," I cried; "I can't live on any less than I'm getting now!"

"Then you resign?" he asked quickly.

For a second I saw red. I wanted to take this pigmy by the throat. I
wanted to shake him. He didn't give me time before exclaiming:

"Very well, Carleton. I'll give you an order for two weeks' pay in
advance."

The next thing I knew I was in the outer office with the order in my
hand. I saw Evans at his desk. I guess I must have looked queer, for
at first he shrank away from me. Then he came to my side.

"Carleton," he said, "what's the matter?"

"I guess you know," I answered.

"You aren't fired?"

I bucked up at this. I tried to speak naturally.

"Yes," I said, "I'm fired."

"But that isn't right, Carleton," he protested. "I didn't think it
would come to that. I went to Morse and told him I wanted to get
married and needed more money. He asked me if I thought I could do
your work. I said yes. I'd have said yes if he'd asked me if I could
do the president's work. But--come back and let me explain it to
Morse."

It was white of him, wasn't it? But I saw clearly enough that he was
only fighting for his right to love as I was fighting for mine. I
don't know that I should have been as generous as he was--ten years
before. He had started toward the door when I called him back.

"Don't go in there," I warned. "The first thing you know you'll be
doing my work without your two hundred."

"That's so," he answered. "But what are you going to do now?"

"Get another job," I answered.

One of the great blessings of my life is the fact that it has always
been easy to report bad news to Ruth. I never had to break things
gently to her. She always took a blow standing up, like a man. So now
I boarded my train and went straight to the house and told her. She
listened quietly and then took my hand, patting it for a moment
without saying anything. Finally she smiled at me.

"Well, Billy," she said, "it can't be helped, can it? So good luck t