mprovement. It was a dingy
afternoon, and the smoke was evident not only to Bibbs's sight, but to
his nostrils, though most of the pedestrians were so saturated with
the smell they could no longer detect it. Nearly all of them walked
hurriedly, too intent upon their destinations to be more than half aware
of the wayside; they wore the expressions of people under a vague yet
constant strain. They were all lightly powdered, inside and out, with
fine dust and grit from the hard-paved streets, and they were unaware of
that also. They did not even notice that they saw the smoke, though the
thickened air was like a shrouding mist. And when Bibbs passed the new
"Sheridan Apartments," now almost completed, he observed that the marble
of the vestibule was already streaky with soot, like his gloves, which
were new.

That recalled to him the faint odor of gasolene in the coupe on the way
from his brother's funeral, and this incited a train of thought which
continued till he reached the vicinity of his home. His route was by
a street parallel to that on which the New House fronted, and in his
preoccupation he walked a block farther than he intended, so that,
having crossed to his own street, he approached the New House from the
north, and as he came to the corner of Mr. Vertrees's lot Mr. Vertrees's
daughter emerged from the front door and walked thoughtfully down the
path to the old picket gate. She was unconscious of the approach of the
pedestrian from the north, and did not see him until she had opened the
gate and he was almost beside her. Then she looked up, and as she
saw him she started visibly. And if this thing had happened to
Robert Lamhorn, he would have had a thought far beyond the horizon of
faint-hearted Bibbs's thoughts. Lamhorn, indeed, would have spoken his
thought. He would have said: "You jumped because you were thinking of
me!"

CHAPTER XV

Mary was the picture of a lady flustered. She stood with one hand
closing the gate behind her, and she had turned to go in the direction
Bibbs was walking. There appeared to be nothing for it but that they
should walk together, at least as far as the New House. But Bibbs had
paused in his slow stride, and there elapsed an instant before either
spoke or moved--it was no longer than that, and yet it sufficed for each
to seem to say, by look and attitude, "Why, it's YOU!"

Then they both spoke at once, each hurriedly pronouncing the other's
name as if about to deliver a