ir, and was making a pair of fresh pretty curtains. All right, let her
do it--if only there could be peace in the house.

With his cravat adjusted and his thick-curling silver hair trim from having
just been cut by "Louis" over at the Brevoort, Roger went comfortably down
to his dinner. Edith greeted him with a smile.

"Deborah's dining out," she said.

"Very well," he replied, "so much the better. We'll go right in--I'm
hungry. And we'll have the evening to ourselves. No big ideas nor problems.
Eh, daughter?" He slipped his hand in hers, and she gave it a little
affectionate squeeze. With John safely out of the way, and not only the
health of her children but their proper schooling assured, Edith was
herself again, placid, sweet and kindly. And dinner that night was a
cheerful meal. Later, in the living room, as Roger contentedly lit his
cigar, Edith gave an appreciative sniff.

"You do smoke such good cigars, father," she said, smiling over her needle.
And glancing up at her daughter, "Betsy, dear," she added, "go and get your
grandfather's evening paper."

In quiet perusal of the news he spent the first part of his evening. The
war did not bother him to-night, for there had come a lull in the fighting,
as though even war could know its place. And times were better over here.
As, skipping all news from abroad his eye roved over the pages for what his
business depended upon, Roger began to find it now. The old familiar
headliness were reappearing side by side--high finance exposures, graft,
the antics and didos cut up by the sons and daughters of big millionaires;
and after them in cheery succession the Yale-Harvard game, a new man for
the Giants, a new college building for Cornell, a new city plan for
Seattle, a woman senator in Arizona and in Chicago a "sporting mayor." In
brief, all over the U.S.A., men and women old and new had risen up, to
power, fame, notoriety, whatever you chose to call it. Men and women?
Hardly. "Children" was the better word. But the thought did not trouble
Roger to-night. He had instead a heartening sense of the youth, the wild
exuberance, the boundless vigor in his native land. He could feel it rising
once again. Life was soon to go on as before; people were growing hungry to
see the names of their countrymen back in the headlines where they
belonged. And Roger's business was picking up. He was not sure of the
figure of his deficit last week--he had always been vague on the
book-keeping