off, delighted at the independence that he
was gaining day after day. He walked the two short blocks with the care
that only convalescents know; a little confused by the gay, jarring
street noises, the wide light and air about him.

He found the address, but somehow the big, gloomy double house didn't
look like Margaret. There was a Mrs. Kirby there, the maid assured him,
however, and John sat down in a hopelessly ugly drawing-room to wait
for her. Instead, there came in a cheerful little woman who introduced
herself as Mrs. Kippam. She was of the chattering, confidential type so
often found in her position.

"Now, you wanted Mrs. Kirby, didn't you?" she said regretfully. "She's
out. I'm the housekeeper here, and I thought if it was just a question
of rooms, maybe I'd do as well?"

"There's some mistake," said John; and he was still weak enough to feel
himself choke at the disappointment. "I want Mrs. John Kirby--a very
beautiful Mrs. Kirby, who is quite prominent in--"

"Oh, yes, indeed!" said Mrs. Kippam, lowering her voice and growing
confidential. "That's the same one. Her husband failed, and all but
killed himself, you know--you've read about it in the papers? She sold
everything she had, you know, to help out the firm, and then she came
here--"

"Bought out an interest in this?" said John, very quietly, in his
winning voice.

"Well, she just came here as a regular guest at first," said Mrs.
Kippam, with a cautious glance at the door. "I was running it then; but
I'd got into awful debt, and my little boy was sick, and I got to
telling her my worries. Well, she was looking for something to do--a
companion or private secretary position--but she didn't find it, and
she had so many good ideas about this house, and helped me out so, just
talking things over, that finally I asked her if she wouldn't be my
partner. And she was glad to; she was just about worried to death by
that time."

"I thought Mrs. Kirby had property--investments in her own name?" John
said.

"Oh, she did, but she put everything right back into the firm," said
Mrs. Kippam. "Lots of her old friends went back on her for doing it,"
the little woman went on, in a burst of loyal anger. "However," she
added, very much enjoying her listener's close attention, "I declare my
luck seemed to change the day she took hold! First thing was that her
friends, and a lot that weren't her friends, came here out of
curiosity, and that advertised the place. Th