tly. Alderman Mooney
considered it thoughtfully. The Young Husband leaned up against the
side of the water tank, his hands in his pockets. "Say, Mooney, is that
right about Blanche Devine's having bought the house on the corner?"

"You're the fourth man that's been in to ask me that this evening. I'm
expecting the rest of the block before bedtime. She bought it all
right."

The Young Husband flushed and kicked at a piece of coal with the toe of
his boot.

"Well, it's a darned shame!" he began hotly. "Jen was ready to cry at
supper. This'll be a fine neighborhood for Snooky to grow up in!
What's a woman like that want to come into a respectable street for,
anyway? I own my home and pay my taxes--"

Alderman Mooney looked up.

"So does she," he interrupted. "She's going to improve the
place--paint it, and put in a cellar and a furnace, and build a porch,
and lay a cement walk all round."

The Young Husband took his hands out of his pockets in order to
emphasize his remarks with gestures.

"What's that got to do with it? I don't care if she puts in diamonds
for windows and sets out Italian gardens and a terrace with peacocks on
it. You're the alderman of this ward, aren't you? Well, it was up to
you to keep her out of this block! You could have fixed it with an
injunction or something. I'm going to get up a petition--that's what
I'm going----"

Alderman Mooney closed the furnace door with a bang that drowned the
rest of the threat. He turned the draft in a pipe overhead and brushed
his sooty palms briskly together like one who would put an end to a
profitless conversation.

"She's bought the house," he said mildly, "and paid for it. And it's
hers. She's got a right to live in this neighborhood as long as she
acts respectable."

The Very Young Husband laughed.

"She won't last! They never do."

Alderman Mooney had taken his pipe out of his mouth and was rubbing his
thumb over the smooth bowl, looking down at it with unseeing eyes. On
his face was a queer look--the look of one who is embarrassed because
he is about to say something honest.

"Look here! I want to tell you something: I happened to be up in the
mayor's office the day Blanche signed for the place. She had to go
through a lot of red tape before she got it--had quite a time of it,
she did! And say, kid, that woman ain't so--bad."

The Very Young Husband exclaimed impatiently:

"Oh, don't give me any of that, Mooney! Blanche D