got back. I think the climate over there must have
locoed me; anyhow the liquor did. Tonight the pendulum is swinging the
other way."

"Why do you think that?"

"I have met you, have I not?"

There was no brightening of her eyes, no acknowledgment of the words.

"To have the misery of another added to your own requires no
congratulations," she said gravely. "But I am glad you told me. I
know there are many who return home like that. I can understand why
much better now than I could once. I have had experience also. It is
so easy to drift wrong, when there is no one to help you go right. I
used to believe this world was just a beautiful playground. I never
dreamed what it really means to be hungry and homeless, to be alone
among strangers. I had read of such things, but they never seemed
real, or possible. But I know it all now; all the utter loneliness of
a great city. Why it is easier to fall than to stand, and, oh! I was
so desperate tonight. I--I actually believe I had come to the very end
of the struggle. Whatever happens--whatever possibly can happen to me
hereafter--I shall never again be the same thoughtless creature, never
again become uncharitable to others in misery." Her eyes dropped
before mine, yet only to uplift themselves again, shining with brave
resolution. "Would you care to tell me what it is with you? What it
is you fight?"

"I am afraid I do not fight, except physically," I confessed soberly.
"Probably that is the whole trouble. If I have ever had a grip I 've
lost it. However I 'm willing to tell my story, although it's a poor
one, just the uninteresting recital of a fool. My home was in New
England, my father a fairly successful manufacturer. My mother died
while I was a child, and I grew up without restraining influence. I
led an ordinary boy's life, but was always headstrong, and willful,
excelling physically. My delight was hunting, and the out-of-doors.
However I kept along with my studies after a fashion, and entered the
University. Here I devoted most of my time to students' pranks, and
athletics, but got through two years before being expelled.
Interesting, is n't it?"

"Yes," she said. "It is what I wish to know."

"This expulsion resulted In a row at home," I went on, disgusted at
myself. "And I took French leave. For six months I knocked about,
doing a little of everything, having rather a tough time, but too
obstinate to confess my mistake and return.