Repairs won't be necessary, ma'am, unless you have a complaining tenant.
I shall manage to keep the place in good order."

"Are your wages satisfactory, Wade?"

"Quite, madam." Sometimes he remembered not to say "ma'am."

"And your food, your own personal comforts, your--"

"Don't worry about me, madam. I make out very well."

"And you are all alone there? All alone in that dark, grim old house? Oh,
how terribly lonely it must be. I--" she shivered slightly.

"I have a scrub-woman in twice a month, and Murray comes to see me once in
awhile. I read a great deal."

"And your meals?"

"I get my own breakfast, and go down to Sixth Avenue for my luncheons and
dinners. There is an excellent little restaurant quite near, you
see,--conducted by a very estimable Southern lady in reduced circumstances.
Her husband is a Northerner, however, and she doesn't see a great deal of
him. I understand he is a person of very uncertain habits. They say he
gambles. Her daughter assists her with the business. She--but, I beg
pardon; you would not be interested in them."

"I am glad that you are contented, Wade. We will consider the matter
settled, and you will go on as heretofore. You may always find me here, if
you desire to communicate with me at any time."

Wade looked around the room. Anne's maid had come in and was employed in
restoring a quantity of flowers to the boxes in which they had been
delivered. There were roses and violets and orchids in profusion.

Mrs. Thorpe took note of his interest. "You will be interested to hear,
Wade, that my sister-in-law is expecting a little baby very soon. I am
taking the flowers up to her flat."

"A baby," said Wade softly. "That will be fine, madam."

After Wade's departure, Anne ordered a taxi, and, with the half dozen
boxes of flowers piled up in front of her, set out for George's home. On
the way up through the park she experienced a strange sense of exaltation,
a curious sort of tribute to her own lack of selfishness in the matter of
the flowers. This feeling of self-exaltation was so pleasing to her, so
full of promise for further demands upon her newly discovered nature, that
she found herself wondering why she had allowed herself to be cheated out
of so much that was agreeable during all the years of her life! She was
now sincerely in earnest in her desire to be kind and gentle and generous
toward others. She convinced herself of that in more ways than one. In the
first place,