had any news of him she gave no sign of
it, and I always left the house no wiser as to his occupation or
whereabouts than when I had entered it. But in the early days of the
following autumn something in her manner, I cannot tell what, perhaps
the very quality of her content, advised me that she was in some sort
of communication with Jerry and that she was no longer borrowing
trouble in his behalf. As I made my way back to the Manor in the train
next day, I found the conviction growing in my mind that Jerry must be
somewhere in New York. Una's orbit had not changed. Could it be that
Jerry's was adapting itself to hers? Jack Ballard had told me that
Jerry had not been seen at the office and that Ballard, Senior, had
washed his hands of him in despair, but had agreed to have large
amounts deposited at stated intervals in the bank. Of course this
proved nothing, for Jerry might have been using his bank for a
forwarding address, but the little I knew fitted surprisingly well
with my own guesses as to Jerry's destiny. Perhaps the wish was father
to the thought. At any rate, I returned to the Manor and resumed my
work with a singularly tranquil mind, aware for the first time in
months of a quiet exhilaration which made the mere fact of existence a
delight. Perhaps after all I--my philosophy--Jerry--were still to be
vindicated!

It was not until the following summer that I learned the truth. An
item in the evening paper caught my eye. It told of the wonderful
boys' club that was being erected in Blank Street, by an unknown
philanthropist. The building was six stories in height, covering half
a block, and was to contain a large gymnasium, a marble swimming pool,
an auditorium, school-rooms, drill hall for the Boy Scout
organization, clubrooms, billiard and pool tables, and sleeping
quarters for a small army. The story was written in the form of an
interview with the representative of the philanthropist, a Mr. John V.
Gillespie, who was seeing personally to every detail of the planning
and construction. The boys' club had already been in existence for a
year, occupying hired quarters, also under the supervision and control
of the aforesaid Gillespie, who, it seemed, had the destinies of the
young males of the district in which the building was situated,
already in the hollow of his hand. The unknown philanthropist was
Jerry, of course. I read between the lines, the marble pool which Una
had envied us, the gymnasium, with "ropes