im," Jacob announced. "No more
two-mile trudges to work, eh?"

Mrs. Harris sat down suddenly and raised her apron to her eyes. Jacob
made his escape and crossed the road. It had seemed to him that he
must have exhausted the whole gamut of emotions during the day, but
there was still a moment's revelation for him when the pale, shy,
little woman whom he had known as his friend's wife came running out
to greet him with shining eyes and outstretched hands.

"Mr. Pratt!" she cried. "Is it all true?"

"It's all true, and more of it," he assured her. "Your man's set up
comfortably for life, and I am a starving millionaire. Anything to
eat?"

She laughed a little hysterically.

"Why, there's everything in the world to eat, and to drink, too, I
should think," she answered. "What they must have thought of you two
men in the shops, I can't imagine! Come into the dining-room, won't
you? Dick's opening some wine."

Then followed the second feast of the day, at which Jacob had to
pretend to be unconscious of the fact that his host and hostess were
alternately ecstatically happy and tremulously hysterical. They all
waited upon themselves and ate many things the names of which only
were familiar to them. Dauncey opened champagne as though he had been
used to it all his life. Jacob carved chickens with great skill, but
was a little puzzled as to the location of caviare in the meal and
more than a little generous with the _pate-de-foie-gras_. The
strawberries and real Devonshire cream were an immense success, and
Mrs. Dauncey's eyes grew round with pleasure at the sight of the boxes
of bonbons and chocolates. Afterwards the two men wandered out into
the garden, a quaint strip of uncultivated land, with wanton beds of
sweet-smelling flowers, and separated from the meadow beyond only by
an untrimmed and odoriferous hedge, wreathed in honeysuckle. Over
wonderful cigars, the like of which neither of them had ever smoked
before, they talked for a moment or two seriously.

"What are you really going to do with your money, Jacob?" Dauncey
asked. "And where do I come in? I do hope I am going to have a chance
of earning my salary."

Jacob was silent for a few moments. In the half light, a new sternness
seemed to have stolen into his face.

"Richard," he said, "you've seen men come out of a fight covered with
scars,--wounds that burn and remind them of their sufferings. Well,
I'm rather like that. I was never a very important person,