ive on seventy-five a month, a thing that'll take
all the strength and energy out of a twenty-dollar bill sorter gets him
down on the mat."

Like old Mrs. Welden's, his roughly sketched picture was a graphic one.

"'Tain't the working that bothers most of us. We were born to that, and
most of us would feel like deadbeats if we were doing nothing. It's the
earning less than you can live on, and getting a sort of tired feeling
over it. It's the having to make a dollar-bill look like two, and
watching every other fellow try to do the same thing, and not often make
the trip. There's millions of us--just millions--every one of us
with his Delkoff to sell----" his figure of speech pleased him and he
chuckled at his own cleverness--"and thinking of it, and talking about
it, and--under his vest--half afraid that he can't make it. And what
you say in the morning when you open your eyes and stretch yourself is,
'Hully gee! I've GOT to sell a Delkoff to-day, and suppose I shouldn't,
and couldn't hold down my job!' I began it over my feeding bottle. So
did all the people I know. That's what gave me a sort of a jolt just
now when I looked at you and thought about you being YOU--and what it
meant."

When their conversation ended she had a much more intimate knowledge
of New York than she had ever had before, and she felt it a rich
possession. She had heard of the "hall bedroom" previously, and she
had seen from the outside the "quick lunch" counter, but G. Selden
unconsciously escorted her inside and threw upon faces and lives the
glare of a flashlight.

"There was a thing I've been thinking I'd ask you, Miss Vanderpoel," he
said just before she left him. "I'd like you to tell me, if you please.
It's like this. You see those two fellows treated me as fine as silk. I
mean Lord Mount Dunstan and Mr. Penzance. I never expected it. I never
saw a lord before, much less spoke to one, but I can tell you that
one's just about all right--Mount Dunstan. And the other one--the old
vicar--I've never taken to anyone since I was born like I took to him.
The way he puts on his eye-glasses and looks at you, sorter kind and
curious about you at the same time! And his voice and his way of saying
his words--well, they just GOT me--sure. And they both of 'em did say
they'd like to see me again. Now do you think, Miss Vanderpoel, it would
look too fresh--if I was to write a polite note and ask if either of
them could make it convenient to come and ta