enthusiasm. The new fire had burned out the old. He was
splendid with happiness.

"Oh! You've no idea of the fun I'm getting out of the thing, Roger.
It's simply great! These boys are fine to work with. They only need a
chance. I've got several hundred of 'em lined up already, all
nationalities ready for the melting-pot--Jews, Italians, Irish, all
religions. I've got the families lined up, too, been to see 'em all
personally. Rough lot, some of 'em--and dirty! Why, Roger, I never
knew there was so much filth in all the world. I'm starting to clean
up the boys, inside and out, getting them jobs and keeping the idle
ones off the streets. Oh! It's going to take time, but we're going to
get there in the end. You've seen the new building? Isn't it a corker?
I haven't been idle, have I?"

"But how on earth," I asked, "have you managed to preserve your
anonymity?"

"Oh, I keep pretty dark. I don't go uptown at all. I made a visit one
night to Ballard Senior and made a clean breast of things and at last
he gave in. You see he had given me up as an office possibility. In
three years, you know, I'll come in--to all the money. In the
meanwhile we've fixed things up to provide for our immediate needs
down here."

"_Ours?_" I queried with a smile. He colored ever so slightly but went
on unperturbed.

"Yes, you know Una's helping me. I couldn't have done a thing without
Una. Her experience in dealing with these people has been simply
invaluable. I thought--" he stopped to laugh--"I thought that all I
had to do was just to spend the money and everything would work out
all right. I made a lot of mistakes with these families at first, did
a lot of harm in a way, offending the proud ones, spoiling the weak
ones and all that, but I've learned a lot since I've been down here.
We've devised a plan--a scientific one. It's really beautiful how it
works. We're going to make these boys all self-supporting and give
'em an education at the same time: manual training, industrial art and
science and all the rest of it. Here! you must go over the building
with me. I've got just half an hour."

He snatched up his cap and we went around the corner, going over the
building from cellar to roof, Jerry explaining breathlessly and I
listening, wondering whether to be most astonished at the
extraordinary change in his mode of thought or at the initiative which
could have planned and executed so great a project. He spoke of Una
constantly, "Una wan