ar--and yet so far away that I can only look upward
as to a star, and despair of the distance. If there has been anything
fine in my life, it has been my love for you. And behold, you, with
every opposite intention, are tempting me to let that go rotten, too.
But, O my Barbs, if you could only love me!"

Barbara drew a long breath. "I thought I was doing right."

"You _have_ done right. It is for me to do right."

"Well," she said, "I'm bitterly disappointed, and that's all there is to
it. Ought I to thank you for letting me off?"

"Yes, dear."

"Then I thank you."

Neither spoke for a long time. At last Barbara said:

"When do you go West?"

"In a very few days."

"Then you will be able to go to Mr. Blizzard's party and hear him play."

"Are you still determined on that?"

"Why, yes. It will be fun. And besides, I haven't any husband to forbid
me."

Wilmot's temper rose a little. "I'll go," he said shortly. "When will
the bust be finished? And the whole Blizzard episode?"

"I'm sure I don't know," said Barbara patiently. "But I think the
Blizzard episode--as you call it--is rather a permanent friendship. I
find reasons to like him, and to admire him."

Wilmot made no comment. He longed to speak evil of Blizzard, but the
fact of his financial obligation to the man kept him silent. He
contented himself with saying: "I'm glad that I haven't your artistic
judgment of character. One of these days you will learn, to your cost,
that men's judgment of a man is usually correct."

"I wish he had legs," said Barbara. "I'd like to do Prometheus bound to
the rock."

Wilmot's disgust was intense. "Do you mean to say--" he began, and then
checked himself. "Why not have your father graft a pair on him? He's
succeeded, by all accounts, in doing so for all sorts of beasts."

"Do you know," said Barbara sweetly, "that is just what my father would
try to do for Mr. Blizzard if some interested person would only step
forward and supply the legs."

"I dare say Blizzard would find a pair quickly enough, if he thought
they could be attached."

"But how could he?"

"Oh, I'm just joking, Miss Innocence. But, seriously, he could buy a
pair for a price. You can buy anything in this world--except love,"

Blizzard, sitting in the sun on the steps of 17 McBurney Place, watched
the pair approaching in the runabout, noted as they drew near the
affectionate seriousness of their attitude toward each other--for they
had stopped