e.'" And
Jimmy's laugh shook the stove-pipe.

"How many gentlemen are coming to-morrow?" asked Miss Jim, who was
sitting in a corner as far as possible from Mr. Tucker.

"Ten," said Jimmy. "Now, you wouldn't think it, but this here hotel has
got six bedrooms. I've tooken care of as many as twenty at a time, easy,
but I'll be hanged if I ever heard of such foolishness as every one of
these fellers wantin' a room to hisself."

"I've got three rooms empty," said Mr. Tucker.

"Well, that leaves one over," said Mat Lucas. "I'd take him out home,
but we've got company, and are sleeping three in a bed now."

Mr. Opp hesitated; then his hospitality overcame his discretion.

"Just consider him my guest," he said. "I'll be very pleased to provide
entertainment for the gentleman in question."

Not until the business of the day was over, and Mr. Opp was starting
home, did he realize how tired he was. It was not his duties as an
editor, or even as a promoter, that were telling on him; it was his
domestic affairs that preyed upon his mind. For Mr. Opp not only led a
strenuous life by day, but by night as well. Miss Kippy's day began with
his coming home, and ended in the morning when he went away; the rest of
the time she waited.

Just now the problem that confronted him was the entertainment of the
expected guest. Never, since he could remember, had a stranger invaded
that little world where Miss Kippy lived her unreal life of dreams.
What effect would it have upon her? Would it be kinder to hide her away
as something he was ashamed of, or to let her appear and run the risk of
exposing her deficiency to uncaring eyes? During the months that he had
watched her, a fierce tenderness had sprung up in his heart. He had
become possessed of the hope that she might be rescued from her
condition. Night after night he patiently tried to teach her to read and
to write, stopping again and again to humor her whims and indulge her
foolish fancies. More than once he had surprised a new look in her eyes,
a sudden gleam of sanity, of frightened understanding; and at such times
she would cling to him for protection against that strange thing that
was herself.

As he trudged along, deep in thought, a white chrysanthemum fell at his
feet. Looking up, he discovered Miss Guinevere Gusty, in a red cloak and
hat, sitting on the bank with a band-box in her lap.

His troubles were promptly swallowed up in the heart-quake which
ensued; but his spe