oing to leave to-morrow."

"That is n't getting rid of him; that's running away," he fumed,
profoundly dissatisfied. "You 'll meet the same sort of thing in the
next place. Why don't you stay and fight it out?"

"I don't like the girls, either," she explained. "They 're all against
me."

"A lot of cats," he muttered. "But where are you going?"

"To Bishop Wycliffe's."

"No!" he cried.

"Why not?" she questioned. "It 's an easier place than this one.
There are no young men there, Tom. That ought to satisfy you. I saw
Miss Wycliffe to-day."

"I don't like the bishop," he said, with some hesitation, as if aware
of the lameness of the objection, "and he does n't like me. There 's
no man in this town more opposed to me than he is. I don't want you to
go there."

"You never let me do what I want to, Tom," she complained despairingly.

He caught her in his arms and gave her an exasperated kiss. The logic
of the argument was with her, and he could meet it only by an
unreasonable prohibition. "I don't want you to go, anyhow," he
reiterated.

"But I 've got to go somewhere," she insisted, placing her two hands
upon his shoulders. She attempted to give him a little shake, with the
result that she shook only herself. His physical immobility was so
suggestive of his mental attitude that she desisted, with sudden
meekness, and the point was apparently settled as he wished. He
possessed himself of her hand, and began to stroke the inside of her
arm, as if he had discovered a new charm in her.

"If you did n't give him what he deserved, what did you do, Lena?" he
demanded, going back to the incident that had aroused his jealousy.

"I drew away, Tom."

"As gentle as a kitten, and without a word, too, I 'll be bound. You
're altogether too pretty--that's the trouble with you. I ought to put
you in a cage, to keep you safe."

"Tom, dear," she said suddenly, "I hear the Pyles talking about
politics when I wait on the table. They say that you have n't the
ghost of a chance to be elected. Now that you 've thrown up your job,
what will you do if you are defeated?"

He emitted a short laugh, expressive of confidence and scorn. "You
were n't such a little fool as to suppose I intended to stand on the
back of a street-car all my life, were you? Five years of that sort of
thing is about enough for me, and I 've worked it for all it was
worth." A desire to impress her overcame his innate secretiveness.
"Th