istress me!" his wife echoed with a bitter laugh.

"Of course, some of it is paid back," Wallace added unconvincingly.
Martie shot him a quick, distrustful glance. Ah, if she could believe
him! "I have his note acknowledging half of it, seventy-five," added
Wallace more confidently. "I'll show it to you!"

"I wish you would!" Martie said in cold incredulity. Teddy, deceived by
his mother's dispassionate tone, gave Wallace a warm little smile,
embellished by bread and milk.

"I guess you've been wondering where I was?" ventured Wallace, rubbing
one big bare foot with the other, and hunching his shoulders in his
disreputable wrapper. Unshaven, unbrushed, he gave a luxurious yawn.

"No matter!" Martie said, shrugging. She poured her tea, noticed that
her fingernails were neglected, and sighed.

"I don't see why you take that attitude, Mart," Wallace said mildly,
sitting down. "In the first place, I sent you a letter day before
yesterday, which Thompson didn't mail--"

"Really!" said Martie, the seething bitterness within her making hand
and voice tremble.

"I have the deuce of a cold!" Wallace suggested tentatively. His wife
did not comment, or show in any way that she had heard him. "I know
what you think I've been doing," he went on. "But for once, you're
wrong. A lot of us have just been down at Joe's in the country. His
wife's away, and we just cooked and walked and played cards--and I sat
in luck, too!" He opened the wallet he held in his hands, showing a
little roll of dirty bills, and Martie was ashamed of the instant
softening of her heart. She wanted money so badly! "I was coming home
Monday," pursued Wallace, conscious that he was gaining ground, "but
this damn cold hit me, and the boys made me stay in bed."

"Will you have some tea?" Martie asked reluctantly. He responded
instantly to her softened tone.

"I WOULD like some tea. I've been feeling rotten! And say, Mart," he
had drawn up to the table now, and had one wrappered arm about Teddy,
"say, Mart," he said eagerly, "listen! This'll interest you. Thompson's
brother-in-law, Bill Buffington, was there; he's an awfully nice
fellow; he's got coffee interests in Costa Rica. We talked a lot, we
hit it off awfully well, and he thinks there's a dandy chance for me
down there! He says he could get me twenty jobs, and he wants me to go
back when he goes--"

"But, Wallace--" Martie's quick enthusiasm was firing. "But what about
the children?"

"Why, they'