ty, looking at him more closely, realized for the first time that
she was sitting beside a man in whom the rage of the primitive animal
was gaining its ascendency. His breath was coming in short stertorous
gasps, his hands were clinched, the purplish color was mounting to his
brows, but he still went through the motions of a courteous
leave-taking.

"Where are you going, Dick?" she asked again, as he stood on the curb
where he had signaled Williams to leave him, with the door of the car
in his hand, staring down at it, and for the moment forgetting to
close it.

"I'm going to find Collier Pratt," he said thickly. Then with a slam
that splintered the hinge of the door he was holding he crashed it in
toward the car.

CHAPTER XIX

OTHER PEOPLE'S TROUBLES

Nancy was trying conscientiously to interest herself in other people's
troubles. After the first great shock of pain following her loss at a
blow of her lover and Sheila, she began automatically to try to work
her way through her suffering. The habit of application to the daily
task combined with her instinct for taking immediate action in a
crisis stood her in good stead in her hour of need. She decided what
to occupy herself with, and then devoted herself faithfully to the
prescribed occupation.

The Inn did not need her. With Betty to guide him economically Gaspard
was able to superintend all the details of the establishment
adequately and artistically. Sheila was gone. She packed up several
trunks of dresses and toys and other childish belongings and sent them
to Washington Square, but even without these constant reminders of
her, the hunger for the child's presence did not abate. The little
girl was curiously dissociated from her father in Nancy's mind. She
had seen so little of the two together that they seemed to belong to
entirely different compartments of her consciousness. It was only the
anguish of losing them that linked them together.

Nancy decided to devote a certain proportion of her days and nights to
remedying such evils as lay under her immediate observation;--to
helping the individuals with whom she came into daily contact--the
dependents and tradespeople with whom she dealt. She had always been
convinced that the people who ministered to her daily comfort in New
York should occupy some part in her scheme of existence. It was one of
her favorite arguments that a little more energy and imagination on
the part of New York citizens would