Richie said. "I feel like an
ass--getting you way up here!"

"Why, my dear boy, it's not _your_ fault!" Julia said, round eyed.

"She said she would positively be here," Richie pursued. "I suppose
there's no earthly reason--" he added uncomfortably.

"Why you and I shouldn't stay here alone? I should hope not!" Julia
reassured him roundly. "And she may come on the seven, anyway!"

"These are the times I wish I had a telephone," said Richie.

"Aw leddy," contributed the Chinese boy. They took their places at the
table, and dinner was eaten by the light of the lamp. But after dinner,
when Julia had tucked Anna into bed, she came back and put out the lamp.
She lighted two candles on the mantelpiece that sent a brave flicker
over the dull walls and up to the ceiling.

"There!" said she, with an energetic stirring of the fire, as she took
her chair again, "that's the way I like this room to look!"

Richard disposed of his awkward length in an opposite chair, his big
bony hands interlocked. In the fire and candlelight Julia looked very
young, her loosened hair glimmering against the back of her chair, her
thin white skirts spreading in a soft circle above her slipper buckles.
The man noticed the serene rise and fall of her breast under her thin
blouse, the content in her half-shut blue eyes. He let his thoughts
play for a moment with the perilous dream that she belonged here at his
hearth, that her sweetness, her demure happiness, her earnest interest
in everything that concerned him, were all his by right.

"I don't quite know what to do about this!" he said gruffly.

"What--our being here?" Julia looked surprised. "Why, Richie, what can
we do? Do you think it matters, one night? After all, we're brother and
sister-in-law!"

"Almost," said Richie, with a laugh.

"Why, Rich, I would never give it one moment's thought; not if I stayed
here a month!" Julia assured him. "And neither would any one else. Don't
be so silly!"

"It's not me; but it isn't fair to you!" Richard said.

Julia had grown a little red. Now she stared into the fire.

"This sort of fuss isn't like you, Rich," she said presently, with an
uncomfortable laugh. "You--you don't usually talk about such things!"

"No, I know I don't," Richard admitted, untouched by her reproach. "I
could go up to Porter's and try to get Aunt Sanna by telephone!" he
muttered.

Julia was displeased, and made no answer, and presently he got up and
went out. She sat t