aid Kalmar, gravely bowing
with his hand upon his heart. "And will you now and then look
over--overlook--oversee--ah yes, oversee this little girl?"

"Listen to me now," cried Mrs. Fitzpatrick. "Can she clear out
thim men from her room?" nodding her head toward Paulina.

"There will be no men in her house."

"Can she kape thim out? She's only a wake craythur anyway."

"Paulina," said her husband.

She came forward and, taking his hand, kissed it, Mrs. Fitzpatrick
looking on in disgust.

"This woman asks can you keep the men out of your room,"
he said in Galician.

"I will keep them out," she said simply.

"Aye, but can she?" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick, to whom her answer
had been translated.

"I can kill them in the night," said Paulina, in a voice of quiet
but concentrated passion.

"The saints in Hivin be above us! I belave her," said Mrs. Fitzpatrick,
with a new respect for Paulina. "But fer the love o' Hivin, tell her
there is no killin' in this counthry, an' more's the pity when ye see
some men that's left to run about."

"She will keep the children safe with her life," said Kalmar. "She
had no money before, and she was told I was dead. But it matters not.
She is nothing to me. But she will keep my children with her life."

His trust in her, his contempt for her, awakened in Mrs. Fitzpatrick
a kind of hostility toward him, and of pity for the wretched woman whom,
while he trusted, he so despised.

"Come an' take an air o' the fire, Paulina," she said not unkindly.
"It's cold forninst the door."

Paulina, while she understood not the words, caught the meaning of
the gesture, but especially of the tone. She drew near, caught the
Irish woman's hand in hers and kissed it.

"Hut!" said Mrs. Fitzpatrick, drawing away her hand.
"Sit down, will ye?"

The Russian rose to his feet.

"I must now depart. I have still a little work to accomplish.
To-morrow I leave the city. Permit me now to bid my children farewell."

He turned to the girl, who held Paulina's baby asleep in her arms.
"Irma," he said in Russian, "I am going to leave you."

The girl rose, placed the sleeping baby on the bed, and coming to
her father's side, stood looking up into his face, her wonderful
brown eyes shining with tears she was too brave to shed.

He drew her to him.

"I am going to leave you," he repeated in Russian. "In one year,
if all is well, at most in two, I shall return. You know I cannot
stay with you, and you know why