r what I said. I am a man
of my word."

Jasper Penny dryly thought that the term man was singularly
inappropriate in any connection with the meticulously garbed figure
before him. Essie would have a difficult time with that stony youth. She
regarded him with eyes of idolatry, drawing her fingers over the sleeve
impatiently held aside from her touch. "I'm going," he stated once more,
impolitely; but she barred him at the door. "I want you to stay," she
cried excitedly; "hear what I am going to say, what I am going to do for
you." She advanced toward Jasper Penny. "I asked that Jannan for more
money because I had given Daniel all I had, and I wanted still more, to
give him. I'll demand things all my life for him; everything I have is
his." She gasped, at the verge of an emotional outburst. Her heart
pounded unsteadily beneath an adventitious lace covering; her face was
leaden with startling daubs of vermilion paint. "Give me a great deal
of money, now, at once ... so that I can go to Daniel with my hands
full."

"That is why I came here," Jasper Penny replied; "to tell you that you
must not use up your income at once, on the first week, almost, of its
payment; because you will be able to get no more until another
instalment is due. I haven't the slightest interest in where your money
goes, it is absolutely your own; but I cannot have you after it every
second day. The administration will be put in a different quarter,
rigidly dispensed; and any continued inopportunities will only result in
difficulties for yourself."

She cursed him in a gasping, spent breath. Essie looked ill, he thought.
Daniel Culser, listening at the door, made a movement to leave, but the
woman prevented him, hanging about his neck. "No! No!" she exclaimed.
"It will be all right, I can get it ... more. Be patient." Jasper Penny
walked stiffly to the exit, where he paused at the point of repeating
his warning. Essie Scofield was lifting a quivering, tear-drenched face
to the vexation of the fashionable youth. He was attempting to repulse
her, but she held him with a desperation of feeling. The elder descended
the stairs without further speech.

Outside, the warmth of the day had continued into dusk. The mist had
thickened, above which, in a momentary rift, he could see the stars
swimming in removed constellations. He was wrapped in an utter loathing
of the scene through which he had passed, his undeniable part in it. It
was all hideous beyond wor