he table 'phone in the back hall."

Tom thanked her with a sinking heart, and turned away. Once more his
fingers mechanically felt for the ring box but he experienced no thrill
this time, when he found it was safe.

He walked slowly cross-town and recklessly passed over Broadway with its
traffic in full swing, looking neither to the right nor to the left. The
officer shouted to rouse him from his apathy, but it failed to work.

He reached the park and found a bench. There he sat down without looking
at the seat. A frantic boy ran over and yelled: "Get up, mister! Get
up--you'se sittin' on my Chrismus candy!"

Tom got up as mechanically as an automaton, but a few of the gummy
candies clung to his coat-tails, while the boy fearful of losing such
treasure ran after the man to pick off the sticky sweets.

When he found another bench that was clear, and no boys nearby to worry
his soul, Tom sat down and sulked. Having practised so faithfully all
that day, in adding the finishing touches of grace to his lesson of
proposing, it was a bitter dose to find all his work was wasted. Polly
had joyfully accepted someone else's invitation to go away and have a
good time, leaving him alone and heart-broken.

Sleet and drizzle began falling, and Tom was soon soaked through, but he
was heedless of clinging clothes and wet shoes.

After an hour of self-pity, he got up and started down the drive. By this
time he was almost frozen, but he congratulated himself on the fact that
he might have pneumonia and die. Then Polly might feel sorry for her
coldness!

Following the suggestion this idea presented, Tom wilfully waded through
the slush in the gutters, and thoroughly drenched his patent-leather
shoes in crossing the streets, until his feet were not only wet but
freezing inside the shoes.

He found a cheap restaurant where the show-windows displayed baskets of
artificial fruit; and as a center-piece of this decoration, there was a
great block of ice holding up a dressed goose, with red holly twined
about it.

Tom detested quick-lunch places where the steam satisfied a man's hunger,
the moment he came in contact with its heavy odors, but he reveled in
this evening's opportunity to be a martyr, so he sat down and ordered
corn-beef and cabbage because he loathed it.

Although he could not eat much of the delectable dish he had ordered, he
was determined to finish his day accordingly. So he ordered Neapolitan
ice-cream and coffee. T