. It's bad enough without----"

He turned on Rachel furiously.

"Where is that damned Fairfax? Why isn't he here with her? The dog!"

"Hush, Harvey!"

"He's mean to mamma," broke in Phoebe, in her high treble. "I hate
him. And so does mamma. Don't you, mamma?"

"Phoebe! Be quiet!"

"Where is he?" repeated Harvey, shaking his finger in Rachel's face.

"What are you blaming me for?" demanded the maid, indignantly.
"Everybody blames me for everything. He's in New York, that's where he
is. Now, you get out of here!"

She actually shoved him out into the aisle, where he stood trembling
and uncertain, while she assisted her mistress to her feet and led her
haltingly toward the exit.

Nellie looked back over her shoulder at him, quite coquettishly. She
shook her head at him in mild derision.

"My, what a fire-eater my little Harvey has become," she said. He
barely heard the words. "Your new wife must be scared half out of her
wits all the time."

He sprang to her side, gently taking her arm in his hand. She lurched
toward him ever so slightly. He felt the weight of her on his arm and
marvelled that she was so much lighter than Phoebe.

"I'm not married, Nellie dear!" he cried. "It's not to be till Friday.
You got the date wrong. And it won't be Friday, either. No, sir! I'm
not going to let you go all the way out there alone. I said I'd look
out for you when we were married, and I'm going to. You've got a
husband, but what good is he to you? He's a brute. Yes, sir; I'm going
with you and I don't give a cuss who knows it. See here! See this wad
of bills? Well, by jingo, there's more than three thousand dollars
there. I drew it out this morning to give to you if you were hard up.
I----"

"Oh, Harvey, what a perfect fool you are!" she cried, tears in her
eyes. "You always were a fool. Now you are a bigger one than ever. Go
away, please! I can get along all right. Fairfax is paying for
everything. Put that roll away! Do you want to be held up right here
in the station?"

"And I've still got the photograph gallery," he went on. "It's rented
and I get $40 a month out of it. I'll take care of you, Nellie. I'll
see you safely out there. Then maybe I'll have to come back and marry
old Mrs. Davis, God help me! I hate to think of it, but she's got her
mind set on it. I don't believe I can get out of it. But she'll have
to postpone it, I can tell you that, whether she likes it or not.
Maybe she'll call it off when she he