water-tender soon.'"

Mary leaned nearer, and caught both of Larry's hands in hers.

"Them's grand words you're sayin'; they fair makes my heart jump." She
paused; the gladness faded quickly from her look. "Then the chief don't
know Dan sometimes takes a drop?"

"Ain't the chief Irish himself? Every man on the boilers takes his
dram." Her wistful eyes spurred him on. "Sure's I'm sittin' here, Dan's
the soberest of the lot."

Mary shook her head sadly.

"Good reason I have to fear the drink; 't was that spoiled my mother's
life."

Larry rose quickly.

"Your mother never drank!"

"No; the saints preserve us!" She looked up in surprise at Larry's
startled face. "It was my father. I don't remember only what mother told
me; he left her one night, ravin' drunk, an' never come back."

Larry hastily took up his cap.

"I must be goin' back to the ship now," he said abruptly. "An' thank
you, Mary, for the tea." He hurried from the room.

When Larry reached the ground floor he heard Mary's door open again.

"Can I be troublin' you, Mouse, to take something to Dan?" She came
down the stairs, carrying a dinner-pail. "I'd thought to be eatin' this
supper along with him," Mary said, disappointment in her tone. She
followed Larry to the outer landing. "It's the true word you was sayin',
he'll be makin' Dan water-tender?"

Larry forced himself to look into her anxious eyes.

"Sure; it's just as I said, Mary."

"Then I'll pray this night to the Mother of God for that chief; for
soon"--Mary hesitated; a light came to her face that lifted the girl
high above her squalid surroundings--"the extra pay'll be comin' handy
soon," she ended, her voice as soft as a Killarney breeze.

Larry, as he looked at the young wife standing between the scarred
columns of the old doorway, was stirred to the farthest corner of his
heart.

"They only smile like that to the angels," he thought. Then aloud: "Bad
cess to me! I was forgettin' entirely! Dan said to leave this with you."
He pushed crumpled, coal-soiled money into her hand, and fled down the
steps.

When Larry heard the door close creakily behind him, he looked back to
where Mary had stood, his eyes blinking rapidly. After some moments he
walked slowly on toward the wharves. In the distance before him the
spars and funnels of ships loomed through the dusk, their outlines
rapidly fading into the sky beyond--a late September sky, now fast
turning to a burned-out sheet of dull gr