r hours at a time she would talk to him about Eleanor,
hungrily snatching at every crumb of news, and yet refusing to pen a line
of conciliation.

"If she can do without me, I can do without her," she would say
stubbornly.

Quin's business brought him to the Bartlett home oftener than usual these
days. For twenty years Madam and Mr. Bangs, as partners in the firm of
Bartlett & Bangs, had tried to run in opposite directions on the same
track, with the result that head-on collisions were of frequent
occurrence. Since Randolph Bartlett's retirement from the firm, Quin had
succeeded him as official switchman, and had proven himself an adept. His
skill in handling the old lady was soon apparent to Mr. Bangs, who lost
no time in utilizing it.

One afternoon in April, when Quin was busily employed at his desk, his
eyes happened to fall upon a calendar, the current date of which was
circled in red ink. The effect of the discovery was immediate. His
energetic mood promptly gave way to one of extreme languor, and his gaze
wandered from the papers in his hand across the grimy roof tops.

This time last year he and Miss Nell had made their first pilgrimage to
Valley Mead. It was just such a day as this, warm and lazy, with big
white clouds loafing off there in the west. He wondered if the peach
trees were in bloom now, and whether the white violets were coming up
along the creek-bank. How happy and contented Miss Nell always seemed in
the country! She had never known before what the outdoor life was like.
How he would like to take her hunting for big game up in the Maine woods,
or camping out in the Canadian Rockies with old Cherokee Jo for a guide!
Or better still,--here his fancy bolted completely,--if he could only
slip with her aboard a transport and make a thirty days' voyage through
the South Seas!

It was at this transcendent stage of his reveries that a steely voice at
his elbow observed:

"You seem to be finding a great deal to interest you in that smokestack,
young man!"

Quin descended from his height with brisk embarrassment.

"Anything you wanted, sir?" he asked.

Mr. Bangs looked about cautiously to make sure that nobody was in
ear-shot, then he said abruptly:

"I want you to come out to my place with me for overnight. I want to talk
with you."

Quin's amazement at this request was so profound that for a moment he did
not answer. Surmises as to the nature of the business ranged from summary
dismissal to