b chops you were talking about. I'm
hungry."

They spent the evening in a cheerful discussion of ways and means,
during which she was continually impressed by Henry's attitude. From
earlier circumstances she had gathered that when he was under fire,
his rash impulsiveness would remain constant, and that only his
jocular manner would disappear; furthermore, she knew that in spite of
that manner, he was a borrower of trouble. And yet Henry, who had a
pretty legitimate reason to be bristling with rancour, sat and talked
away as assuredly as though this hadn't been his doomsday.

She left him, once, to answer the telephone, and when she came back,
she caught him off guard, and saw his face in repose. Henry wasn't
aware of it; and when he heard her footsteps, he looked up with an
instantaneous re-arrangement of his features. But Anna had seen, and
Anna had understood; she sensed that Henry, for a generous purpose,
had merely adopted a pose. Secretly, he was quite as tormented, quite
as desperate, as she had expected him to be.

Her heart contracted, but for Henry's sake, she closed her eyes to the
revelation, and resumed the discourse in the same key which Henry had
set for it. Far into the night they exchanged ideas, and half-blown
inspirations, but when Henry finally arose, with the remark that it
was time to wind the clock and put out the cat, they had come to no
conclusion except that something would certainly have to be done about
it. "Oh, well," said Henry, indulgently, "a pleasant evening was
reported as having been had by all, and nothing was settled--so it was
just as valuable as a Cabinet Meeting."

The sight of the silver tea-service, however, sent him to bed with
renewed determination.

In the morning, he dreaded to open his newspaper, but when he had read
through the story twice, he conceded that it wasn't half as yellow as
he feared. No, it was really rather conservative, and the photograph
of him wasn't printed at all; he read, with grim satisfaction, that
another culprit, somewhat more impetuous, had smashed the camera, and
attempted to stage a revival of his success upon the photographer.

He had been fully prepared to find himself singled out for publicity,
and he was greatly relieved. To be sure, there was a somewhat
flippant mention of his relationship to Mirabelle, but it wasn't
over-emphasized, and altogether, he had no justification for
resentment--that is, at the _Herald_. The _Herald_ had mere