irector of the Boys' Club, and I know he admires her, and she
has another admirer, too, who comes here now and then. But how likely
she is to marry I really can't say! She's an extremely ambitious girl,
and she has determined to raise herself."

"Raise herself!" Jim said, with a casual laugh. "I don't suppose she
started much lower than other people?"

"Oh, I imagine she did. Her father was a--I don't know--a sort of
drummer, I guess, but her mother is an awful person, and her grandfather
was a day labourer!"

"Ha!" Jim said, discomfited. "Well, see you tomorrow!" he added,
departing. He walked briskly to the corner of the street, and
experienced a thump at the heart when a casual backward glance
discovered Julia, in a most fetching hat, coming out of the settlement
house with a market basket on her arm. She did not see him, and Jim
decided not to see her. Of course she _was_ a little peach, but that
labourer grandfather was too much.

That same evening Julia used the accident to little Maude as an excuse
to break a half engagement with Mark. He was to be given only a few
moments' chat before the Girls' Club met for a rehearsal, but he showed
such bitter disappointment at losing it that Julia, half against her
will, promised to spend at least part of her Sunday afternoon with him.

This was on Wednesday, and on Thursday and Saturday Doctor Studdiford
came to see his little patient, and both times saw Julia, too. He asked
Julia what books she liked, and, surprised that she knew nothing of
Browning, he sent her a great volume of his poetry, a leather-bound
exquisite edition that Jim had taken some trouble to find. With the book
came a box of violets, and Julia, opening the package, suddenly
remembered that he was a rich man, and stood, flushed and palpitating to
a thousand emotions, looking down at the damp, fragrant flowers.

She wore a few violets at the breast of her sober little gown when she
met Mark on Sunday for the promised walk. Julia had been most reluctant
to go, but Maude had been moved to her own home, and the child's father
was sitting with her, so that Julia had no excuse to visit her.

"I want to show you something--something you'll like!" said Mark
eagerly. "We take the Sixteenth Street car and transfer down
Sacramento."

Julia accepted his guidance good-naturedly, and they crossed the city,
which lay in a clear wash of the warm September sunlight. Mark led Julia
finally to the ornate door of a n