ed his big boot and the smaller boot, called
out to him--

"Ah, don't yez go out unless ye have a cup of hot coffee, Misther
Fairfax. It's biting cold. Come on in now."

Kenny's was a temperance hotel, obliged to be by the railroad. There
were two others in the room besides the landlady and Kenny: Sanders and
Molly Shannon. They sat together by the stove. As Fairfax came in Molly
drew her chair away from the engineer. Fairfax accepted gratefully Mrs.
Kenny's suggestion of hot coffee, and while she busied herself in
getting it for him, he sat down.

"Running out at eight, Sanders?"

"You bet," said the other shortly. "New York Central don't change its
schedule for the weather."

Sanders was suspicious regarding Fairfax and the girl, not that the
fireman paid the least attention to Molly Shannon, but she had changed
in her attitude to all her old friends since the new-comer first drank a
cup of coffee in Sheedy's. Sanders had asked Molly to marry him every
Sunday since spring, and he firmly believed that if he had begun his
demands the Sunday before Fairfax appeared, the girl would be Mrs.
Sanders now.

Molly wore a red merino dress. According to the fashion of the time it
fitted her closely like a glove. Its lines revealed every curve of her
young, shapely figure, and the red dress stopped short at the dazzling
whiteness of her neck. Her skin and colouring were Irish, coral-like and
pure. Her hair was auburn and the vivid tint of her costume was an
unfortunate contrast; but her grey eyes with black flecks in them and
long black lashes, her piquant nose and dimples, brought back the
artistic mistake, as the French say. She was too girlish, too young, too
pretty not to score high above her dreadful dress.

Fairfax, who knew why he did not eat at the coffee-house any more,
looked at the reason, and the artist in him and the man simultaneously
regarded the Irish girl.

"Somebody's got on a new frock," he said. "Did you make it, Miss Molly?"

"Sure," she answered, without lifting her eyes, and went all red from
her dress to her hair.

Fairfax drank the hot coffee and felt the warmth at his heart. He heard
Sanders say under his breath--

"Why, I bet you could make anything, Molly, you're so smart. Now I have
a rip in my coat here; if Mrs. Kenny has a needle will you be a good
girl and mend it?"

And Fairfax heard her say, "Sanders, leave me be."

Since Sanders had cooled to him, Fairfax took special pains to b