been easy to fall
into a quarrel with him. Lena had told him once that she liked to hear him
practice, so he always left his door open, and watched who came and went.

There was a coolness between the Pole and Lena's landlord on her account.
Old Colonel Raleigh had come to Lincoln from Kentucky and invested an
inherited fortune in real estate, at the time of inflated prices. Now he
sat day after day in his office in the Raleigh Block, trying to discover
where his money had gone and how he could get some of it back. He was a
widower, and found very little congenial companionship in this casual
Western city. Lena's good looks and gentle manners appealed to him. He
said her voice reminded him of Southern voices, and he found as many
opportunities of hearing it as possible. He painted and papered her rooms
for her that spring, and put in a porcelain bathtub in place of the tin
one that had satisfied the former tenant. While these repairs were being
made, the old gentleman often dropped in to consult Lena's preferences.
She told me with amusement how Ordinsky, the Pole, had presented himself
at her door one evening, and said that if the landlord was annoying her by
his attentions, he would promptly put a stop to it.

"I don't exactly know what to do about him," she said, shaking her head,
"he's so sort of wild all the time. I would n't like to have him say
anything rough to that nice old man. The Colonel is long-winded, but then
I expect he's lonesome. I don't think he cares much for Ordinsky, either.
He said once that if I had any complaints to make of my neighbors, I must
n't hesitate."

One Saturday evening when I was having supper with Lena we heard a knock
at her parlor door, and there stood the Pole, coatless, in a dress shirt
and collar. Prince dropped on his paws and began to growl like a mastiff,
while the visitor apologized, saying that he could not possibly come in
thus attired, but he begged Lena to lend him some safety pins.

"Oh, you'll have to come in, Mr. Ordinsky, and let me see what's the
matter." She closed the door behind him. "Jim, won't you make Prince
behave?"

I rapped Prince on the nose, while Ordinsky explained that he had not had
his dress clothes on for a long time, and to-night, when he was going to
play for a concert, his waistcoat had split down the back. He thought he
could pin it together until he got it to a tailor.

Lena took him by the elbow and turned him round. She laughed when she