world of such shadows
as that which fell across his path from behind those iron bars. He
rejoiced again that he had made up his mind to live the life of faith
and good fellowship with all men, including the little swarthy master
of the palace he was about to enter.

And so with light heart he stepped through the door which the soft
white hand of Death opened. How could he know?

CHAPTER XVII

SOME INSIDE FACTS

As Stuart dressed for Nan's party he brooded over his new relation to
his old sweetheart with increasing pleasure. She had begun to tease him
with gentle raillery about his tragic exaggeration of the treachery of
her betrayal, and laughingly promised to make it all up by introducing
him to a group of the richest and most beautiful girls in New York. He
could take his choice under her wise guidance. She promised to begin
his course of instruction to-night.

Never had Bivens's offer seemed more generous and wonderful. His pulse
beat with quickened stroke as he felt the new sense of power with which
he would look out on the world as a possible millionaire.

He gazed over the old Square with a feeling of regret at the thought of
leaving it. He had grown to love the place in the past years of
loneliness. He had become personally acquainted with every tree and
shrub and every limb of the nearby trees. He had watched them grow from
his window, seen them sway in the storm, bow beneath the ice, and grow
into new beauty and life each spring. He was deciding too soon,
perhaps. There were some features of Bivens's business he must
understand more clearly before he could give up his freedom and devote
himself body and soul to the task of money-making as his associate.

He resolved to make his decision with deliberation. But if he should go
in for money, he wouldn't forget his old friends, nor would he leave
Washington Square. He would buy that corner plot on Fifth Avenue across
the way for his house. There should be two beautiful suites in it for
the doctor and Harriet, and from their windows they could always see
the old home on the other side. He would buy the two adjoining houses,
turn them into a sanitarium, endow it and place the doctor in charge.
And he would give him a fund of ten thousand a year for his outside
work among the poor.

He woke from his reverie with a start and looked at his watch to find
he had been standing there dreaming for half an hour. He hurried across
the Square to take a cab at