eld
faded into the distance behind the rapid car, she sank back into her
corner with an unconscious sigh. Archie had taken a cigarette from the
little gold case that had been one of Adelle's first presents to him,
and as he lighted it skillfully in face of the wind was doubtless
thinking that never again would he be misled into going to Clark's
Field.

On the way back Adelle ordered the driver to stop in the Square, and
despite Archie's protest that it was already long past lunch-time she
left him in the car and turned down the side street that led to the old
rooming-house. It was gone! In its place was a five-story flat building
that occupied not only all their yard, but the livery-stable lot as
well. Adelle realized the change with a positive shock. Latterly, since
the little lecture by the probate judge, the images of her early life
had come back to her mind as they had not for years. The transformation
of Clark's Field did not matter so much even: it had not been in the
immediate horizon of her youth,--more an idea than a physical
possession. But Church Street and the rooming-house and the
livery-stable--they had been her very self. She felt strangely as she
had seven years before when she was returning to her aunt's house after
the funeral of the widow. The last of all her landmarks had been swept
away....

She returned to the car with a thoughtful face, and all the way into the
city she paid no attention to Archie's chatter, her mind far away, busy
with her forlorn little past. Once or twice she wondered what the judge
had meant by urging her to take her husband to see Clark's Field. But
she was glad that she had gone. She should have visited Alton sometime
or other she supposed to see what the old place was like;--she must
remember to go to the cemetery before they left B---- and look for her
aunt's grave. But this was not all that the judge meant, Adelle
suspected.

She was not to discover for some years the full, fine meaning of the
judge's intention, perhaps might never recognize all the implications of
his message to her on her twenty-first birthday.

XXX

Archie was pacified by a copious luncheon in the Eclair restaurant,
which is almost as good as a second-class Paris restaurant, and after an
idle afternoon the couple went to a popular musical comedy to end their
day. Adelle's business with the trust company was now finished, and they
must decide upon their next move. Their first impulse afte