ss vaudeville circuit for her "Songs of the 'Sixties,"
had, together with the cost of transportation back to Port Agnew, so
depleted her resources that, with the few hundred dollars remaining,
her courage was not equal to the problem which unemployment in New
York would present; for with the receipt of Mrs. McKaye's message, Nan
had written the booking agent explaining that she had been called West
on a matter which could not be evaded and expressed a hope that at a
later date the "time" might be open to her. Following her return to
the Sawdust Pile she had received a brief communication stating that
there would be no opening for her until the following year. The
abandonment of her contract and the subsequent loss of commissions to
the agent had seriously peeved that person.

The receipt of this news, while a severe disappointment, had not
caused her to flinch, for she had, in a measure, anticipated it and
with the calmness of desperation already commenced giving thought to
the problem of her future existence. In the end she had comforted
herself with the thought that good cooks were exceedingly scarce--so
scarce, in fact, that even a cook with impedimenta in the shape of a
small son might be reasonably certain of prompt and well-paid
employment. Picturing herself as a kitchen mechanic brought a wry
smile to her sweet face, but--it was honorable employment and she
preferred it to being a waitress or an underfed and underpaid
saleswoman in a department store. For she could cook wonderfully well
and she knew it; she believed she could dignify a kitchen and she
preferred it to cadging from the McKayes the means to enable her to
withstand the economic siege incident to procuring a livelihood more
dignified and remunerative.

Thus she had planned up to the day of her unexpected meeting with Jane
and Elizabeth McKaye in the Port Agnew telegraph office. On that day,
something had happened--something that had constituted a distinct
event in Nan Brent's existence and with which the well-bred insolence
of the McKaye girls had nothing to do. Indirectly old Caleb Brent had
been responsible, for by the mere act of dying, his three-guarter pay
as a retired sailor had automatically terminated, and Nan had written
the Navy Department notifying it accordingly.

Now, the death of a retired member of the Army or Navy, no matter what
his grade may be, constitutes news for the service journals, and the
fact that old Caleb had been a meda