d he felt an insane desire to lie down and ask this
tiny, tired girl to walk upon him if it would give her the smallest
satisfaction.

The whole thing passed in a flash, but for him it was one of those
illuminating beams that discovers a hitherto undreamed-of panorama.

He caught up little Fay, who made no objection, and ran up all five
flights about as fast as he had run down. Jan was just coming out of the
flat.

"Here's one!" he cried breathlessly, depositing little Fay. "And now
I'll go down and give the little chap a ride as well."

He met them half-way up. "Now it's your turn," he said to Tony. "Would
you like to come on my back?"

Tony, though taciturn, was not unobservant. "I think," he said solemnly,
"Meg's more tired nor me. P'raps you'd better take her."

Meg laughed, and what the rain and wind could not do, Tony managed. Her
cheeks grew rosy.

"I'm afraid I should be rather heavy, Tony dear, but it's kind of you to
think of it."

She looked up at Captain Middleton and smiled again. What a kind world
it was! And really that tall young man was rather a pleasant person. So
it fell out that Tony was carried the rest of the way, and he had a
longer ride than little Fay; for his steed mounted the staircase
soberly, keeping pace with Meg; they even paused to take breath on the
landings. And it came about that Captain Middleton went back into the
flat with the children, showing no disposition to go away, and Jan could
hardly do less than ask him to share the tea she had laid in the
dining-room.

There he got a shock, for Meg came to tea in her cap and apron.

Out of doors she wore a long, warm coat that entirely covered the green
linen frock, and a little round fur hat. This last was a concession to
Jan, who hated the extinguisher. So Meg looked very much like any other
girl. A little younger, perhaps, than any young woman of twenty-five
has any business to look, but pretty in her queer, compelling way.

That she looked even prettier in her uniform Captain Middleton would
have been the first to allow; but he hated it nevertheless. There seemed
to him something incongruous and wrong for a girl with a smile like that
to be anybody's nursemaid.

To be sure, Miss Ross was a brick, and this queer little servant of hers
called her by her Christian name and contradicted her flatly twice in
the course of tea. Miss Morton certainly did not seem to be downtrodden
... but she wore a cap and an apron--a very beco