quietly said:

"Thank you very much."

"Oh, don't mention it."

"I will get your overcoat, and don't let me detain you," said Karl with
significant emphasis.

"I broke the hanger; your man is mending it and will bring it here,"
Millar said coolly, ignoring the marked impoliteness.

Karl said nothing more, and after a few minutes of silence Millar
resumed:

"I just saw something that touched me deeply. Madam Hofmann clinging to
her husband's arm as if she were begging him to protect her----"

"Protect her?" Karl exclaimed angrily. "You don't mean to protect her
from me?"

"Look here, Karl, do you think you are wise to be a fool?"

"I prefer not to discuss this subject," Karl answered coldly. "You don't
seem to understand my position. Why, it is absurd; I have seen this
woman every day for years; met her and her husband; we have been good
friends. That's all, absolutely, and had I thought of anything else I
should laugh at myself. In wealth, position, everything, she is above
me."

"No woman is above her own heart," Millar replied cynically. "Look at
her. She is yours if you want her. Just stretch out your hand, my boy,
and you have your warmth, your happiness, your joy, unspeakable joy, the
most supreme joy possible to a human being, and you are too lazy to
reach out your hand. Why, another man would toil night and day, risk
life and limb for such a woman; yet she drops into your arms unsought--a
found treasure."

Karl laughed bitterly.

"A found treasure," he repeated. "Perhaps that is why I am indifferent."

Millar moved over to where the young artist was seated on the couch and
sat beside him. He leaned toward Karl and spoke low and earnestly,
keeping his big, black, glittering eyes fixed on him.

"Last fall, on the 6th of September--I shall never forget the date--I
had a singular experience," he said. "I put on an old suit of
clothes--one I had not worn for some time--and as I picked up the
waistcoat a sovereign dropped out from one of the pockets. It had been
there no one knew how long. I picked it up, saying to myself, as I
turned the gold piece over in my hand, 'I wonder when you got there?' It
slipped through my fingers and rolled into some dark corner.

"I searched the room trying to find it, but my sovereign had gone. I
became nervous. Again I searched, with no result. I became angry, took
up the rugs, moved the furniture about, and I called my man to help me.
I grew feverish with the one th