She prized the
whistle that Kid Shannon had given her, and resolved that some time she
would adventure again into his part of the city, and see if she could
bring him running to her side.

"I am sorry I am late," said Barbara, "but I couldn't help it." She
vouchsafed no further explanation, and because she was so young and
beautiful all those who had been kept waiting forgave her.

Wilmot Allen took her in to dinner, and looked much love at her, and
talked much nonsense. He was, indeed, so gay and foolish that she
imagined that he must have got himself into trouble again.

XVII

Blizzard was an acute student of human nature. And a certain softening
in Barbara's manner toward him was proof that she had learned his story
from her father, and no longer regarded him as a stranger off the
streets, but as a human being definitely connected with her outlook upon
life. Still, the suggestion that their relations had changed did not
come from him, for he knew that pity or sympathy given by request lacks
the potency of that which is spontaneously offered. So he held his peace
in order that Barbara might be the first to speak, and during those days
his heart became filled with mad hopes for the future.

Upon one thing he was determined, that when in the course of events
Barbara should touch upon her father's criminal mistake, he would
conceal, as something precious from a thief, the hatred and vengefulness
that were in him, and unroll for her benefit a character noble and
forgiving. He was content, or appeared content, day after day, for a
number of hours, to be with her, and to play the hypocrite so ably as to
defy detection.

And Barbara, knowing how the man had been abused, guessing how he must
have suffered, and still suffered, came to look upon him, not indeed as
upon a person wholly noble, but as upon one who, with an impulse in the
right direction, had in him possibilities of great nobility.

Just as a fine motor-car, perfect in mechanism, punctures a tire and is
stalled by the side of the road, so works of genius like Barbara's head
of Blizzard do not progress in one swift rush from start to finish.
There were whole mornings during which it seemed that things went
backward instead of forward, and when she was so discouraged that, had
it not been for the legless man's almost fiery confidence in her ability
to overcome all obstacles, she must have taken a hammer and pounded her
fine sketch back into the lump o