I believe you, sir. Yes,
sir; I saw her, and I guess she looks it. You take that kind of a lady
usually, and catch her in a crowd like the one show-day, and she can't
help doing the Grand Duchess, giving the tenants a treat--but not her;
she didn't seem to _separate_ herself from 'em, some way."

"She is a fine lady," said the other simply. "I did not accept her
renunciation, though I acknowledge I forbade it with a very poignant
envy. I could not be the cause of her giving up for my sake her state
of ease and luxury--for my relatives are more than well-to-do, and they
made it plain she must choose between them and me, with the design, I
think, of making it more difficult to choose me. And, also, it seemed
to me, as it did to her, that she owed them nearly everything, but she
declared I had lived alone so long that she owed me everything, also.
She is a--beautiful--character, Mr. Parker."

"Well," said Parker, after a pause, "the town will be upside down over
this; and folks will be mighty glad to have it explained about your
being out there so much, and at the deepo, and all this and that.
Everybody in the place has been wondering what in--that is--" he
finished in some confusion--"that is--what I started to say was that
it won't be so bad as it might be, having a lady in the office here. I
don't cuss to speak of, and Ross can lay off on his till the boss comes
back. Besides, it's our only chance. If she can't make the 'Herald' hum,
we go to the wall."

The old man did not seem to hear him. "I forbade the renunciation she
wished to make for my sake," he said, gently, "but I accept it now for
the sake of our stricken friend--for Mr. Harkless."

"And for the Carlow 'Herald,'" completed the foreman.

The morning following that upon which this conversation took place,
the two gentlemen stood together on the station platform, awaiting
the arrival of the express from Rouen. It was a wet gray day; the wide
country lay dripping under formless wraps of thin mist, and a warm,
drizzling rain blackened the weather-beaten shingles of the station;
made clear-reflecting puddles of the unevenly worn planks of the
platform, and dampened the packing-cases that never went anywhere too
thoroughly for occupation by the station-lounger, and ran in a little
crystal stream off Fisbee's brown cotton umbrella and down Mr. Parker's
back. The 'bus driver, Mr. Bennett, the proprietor of two attendant
"cut-unders," and three or four other wort