ravely. "You've found your way back to the highroad in that
tale you were sending me. I'm doubting you'll ever lose it again all the
long days of your life."

"I won't" said Jane, stoutly. (Good to be back with him, good to hear his
purling brogue and his lyrical construction. He talked like an old song.)
The door of the boarding-house opened at their ring and Jane hurried in.
"Here's Mrs. Hills! Hello, Mrs. Hills! Here I am!" She embraced the
ex-villager warmly and espied Emma Ellis in the shadows of the hall, over
her shoulder. "And Miss Ellis! How-do-you-do?"

Miss Ellis did very well, according to her own statement, but it was
pathetically clear to one pair of sharp eyes at least that she would have
done better if Michael Daragh had not been bringing in Jane's suitcase
and handbag and umbrella while a taxi got under way in the street.

"It's so nice to be back with you all," said the returned exile,
heartily. The Settlement worker came out into the light and it was to be
observed that she was still more pinched and sallow than of yore and
Jane's heart melted within her to swift mercy. "I found Michael Daragh on
the sidewalk and pressed him into service as porter. Thanks, Michael
Daragh. Am I to give you the quarter for your Poor and Needy?"

"You are, indeed," said the Irishman, firmly, taking the stairs two at a
bound. "More than that, you'll be giving me for a case I know, with the
proud and prosperous look you have on you this day!"

"I hope," said Emma Ellis, conscientiously, the taut lines of her face
loosening a little, "you had a pleasant outing?"

"Yes," said Jane, flippantly, "but my outing was an inning--and I've
delved like a riverful of beavers, and I'll be at work at nine to-morrow
morning."

"That Mr. Harrison has been 'phoning and _'phoning_," Mrs. Hills
announced, complacently. "And he wants you should ring him up the minute
you got in--something about this evening, I guess, he was so set on
having you get the message."

"That listens alluringly! I'll call him now,--may I?" She shook herself
out of her topcoat and fur and sat down at the hall telephone. Mrs. Hills
and Miss Ellis discreetly withdrew to the living room, but the low tones
of her voice were carrying and it was presently made clear to them that
gayety was afoot for the evening, a sort of gayety they two had never
known, would never know ... little tables with shaded candles, lights,
music, subtle, wheedling music, hovering head-wa