er _knew_ that his
father had gone, and why.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE BATTLE

All the morning Win was in a state of strange, almost hysterical,
exaltation. Again and again she warned her spirit down from the
heights, but it would not hear, and stood there in the sunshine
singing a wild song of love and joy.

Wonderful, incredible pictures painted themselves before her eyes. She
saw Peter, impressed with her words--as indeed he had seemed to
be--and remembering them nobly for the benefit of the two thousand
hands within the Hands. She saw herself as his wife (oh, bold,
forbidden thought, which dared her to push it from her heart!) helping
him reach the ideal standard of what a great department store should
be, planning new and highly improved systems of insurance, thinking
out ways for employees to share profits, and of giving them pensions.

She, who knew what the hands suffered and what they needed, could do
for them what no outsider could ever do. With Peter's money and power
and the will to aid, there would be nothing they two could not
accomplish. Their love would teach them how to love the world. She saw
the grand Christmas parties and the summer picnics the Hands would
give the hands, and Peter's idea for a convalescent home should be
splendidly carried out. She saw the very furniture and its chintz
covers--then the picture would vanish like a rainbow--or break into
disjointed bits, like the jig-saw puzzle Peter senior had hidden
shamefacedly in a drawer.

For some moments Winifred's mind would be a blank save for a jumble of
Paris mantles and warm customers, then another picture would form: she
would see Peter and herself sending Sadie Kirk to the mountains, where
the girl would be even happier and healthier than at the new place
which was "free for consumers." Sadie would be Win's own special
charge, her Mend, for whom she had the right and privilege to provide.
No more work in shops for Sadie! No more work at all till she was
cured. Perhaps a winter in the Adirondacks, then such radiant health
as the "sardine" had hardly ever known.

Meanwhile the thoughts of Ursus must be turned from the girl who could
never love him to the girl who already did. He and Sadie had been good
chums since the day when all three marched in procession toward Mr.
Meggison's window--how long ago it seemed! The big heart of the lion
tamer was easily moved to pity, and pity was akin to love. When
she--Win--gently broke it to