through any explanations."

"We won't, but it's tough, you old walrus. Why the hell didn't you give
us time to think it over? You're a fine jellyfish, you are."

He poked him reprimandingly in the ribs.

"There isn't anyone any more sorry than I am," said Eugene. "I hate to
leave here, I do. But we won't lose track of each other. I'll still be
around here."

"Where do you expect to live? Here in the city?" asked MacHugh, still a
little gloomy.

"Sure. Right here in Washington Square. Remember that Dexter studio
Weaver was telling about? The one in the third floor at sixty-one?
That's it."

"You don't say!" exclaimed Smite. "You're in right. How'd you get that?"

Eugene explained.

"Well, you sure are a lucky man," observed MacHugh. "Your wife ought to
like that. I suppose there'll be a cozy corner for an occasional
strolling artist?"

"No farmers, no sea-faring men, no artistic hacks--nothing!" declared
Eugene dramatically.

"You to Hell," said Smite. "When Mrs. Witla sees us--"

"She'll wish she'd never come to New York," put in Eugene.

"She'll wish she'd seen us first," said MacHugh.

BOOK II

THE STRUGGLE

CHAPTER I

The marriage ceremony between Eugene and Angela was solemnized at
Buffalo on November second. As planned, Marietta was with them. They
would go, the three of them, to the Falls, and to West Point, where the
girls would see their brother David, and then Marietta would return to
tell the family about it. Naturally, under the circumstances, it was a
very simple affair, for there were no congratulations to go through with
and no gifts--at least immediately--to consider and acknowledge. Angela
had explained to her parents and friends that it was quite impossible
for Eugene to come West at this time. She knew that he objected to a
public ceremony where he would have to run the gauntlet of all her
relatives, and so she was quite willing to meet him in the East and be
married there. Eugene had not troubled to take his family into his
confidence as yet. He had indicated on his last visit home that he might
get married, and that Angela was the girl in question, but since Myrtle
was the only one of his family who had seen her and she was now in
Ottumwa, Iowa, they could not recall anything about her. Eugene's father
was a little disappointed, for he expected to hear some day that Eugene
had made a brilliant match. His boy, whose pictures were in the
magazines so frequently and w