t
upon him. These rascals, whatever they might say in the kitchen
afterwards, served him at the table as though he had been an eldest son
of the house. If they had expected that the ragged, shabby fellow, who
entered the house so stealthily an hour ago, would provide food for
their exquisitely delicate sense of humor, they were wofully
disappointed. Alban ate his dinner without uttering a single remark.

And last night it had been supper in the caves! There must be no charge
of inconsistency brought against him if a momentary shudder marked this
recollection of an experience. A man may bridge a great gulf in a single
instant of time. Alban had no less affection for, no less interest
to-night in those pitiful lives than yesterday, but he understood that a
flood of fortune had carried him for the time being away from them, and
that his desire must be to help but not to regret them. Indeed, he could
not resist, nor did he wish to resist a great content in this
well-being, which overtook him in so subtle a manner. The sermons of the
old days, preached by many a mad fanatic of Union Street, declared that
any alliance between the rich and the poor must be false and impossible.
Alban believed it to be so. A mere recollection of the shame of poverty
could already bring the blood to his cheeks, and yet he would have
defended poverty with all the logic of which his clever brain was
capable.

So in a depressing silence the long dinner was eaten. Methodically and
with velvet steps the footmen put dish after dish before him, the butler
filled his rarely lifted glass, the whole ceremony of dining performed.
For his own part he would have given much to have escaped after the fish
had been served, and to have gone out and explored the garden which had
excited Mr. Geary to such poetic thoughts. Not a large eater (for the
East End does not dare to cultivate an appetite), he was easily
satisfied; and he found the mere length of the menu to be an ordeal
which he would gladly have been spared. Why did people want all these
dishes, he asked himself. Why, in well-to-do circles, is it considered
necessary to serve precisely similar portions of fish and flesh and fowl
every night at eight o'clock? Men who work eat when they are disposed.
Alban wondered what would happen if such a custom were introduced into
the House of the Five Gables. A cynical reverie altogether--from which
the butler's purring voice awakened him.

"Will you have your cof