up."

The statement bringing out Thor's own intention to run as a candidate
for office at the next election, Jim expressed his interest in the
vernacular of the hour, "What do you know about that?" Further
discussion of politics ending in Jim's pledging his support to his
boyhood's friend, Thor shook hands with an encouraging sense of being
embarked on a public career, and went forward to visit his patient in
the house.

His steps were arrested, however, by hearing Jim say with casual
light-heartedness, "Rosie anywheres about, Mr. Fay?"

The old man having nodded in the direction of the hothouse, Jim advanced
almost to the door, where Thor, on looking over his shoulder, saw him
pause.

It was a curious pause for one so self-confident as the young
Irishman--a pause like that of a man grown suddenly doubtful, timid,
distrustful. His hand was actually on the latch when, to Thor's
surprise, he wheeled away, returning to his "team" with head bent and
stride slackened thoughtfully. By the time he had mounted the wagon,
however, and begun to tug at Maud he was whistling the popular air of
the moment with no more than a subdued note in his gaiety.

CHAPTER X

But Thor was pleased with the idea that his father could scarcely refuse
him the lease. He would in fact make it worth his while not to do so.
Rosie Fay and those who belonged to her might, therefore, feel solid
ground beneath their feet, and go on working and, if need were,
suffering, without the intolerable dread of eviction. It would be a
satisfaction to him to accomplish this much, whatever the dictates of
honor might oblige him to forego.

He felt, too, that he was getting his reward when, after Jim's
departure, Rosie nodded through the glass of the hothouse, giving him
what might almost be taken for a smile. He forbore to go to her at once,
keeping that pleasure for the end of his visit. After seeing his
patient, there were generally small directions to give the daughter
which afforded pretexts for lingering in her company. His patient was
getting better, not through ministrations of his own, but through some
mysterious influence exerted by Reuben Hilary. As a man of science and a
skeptic, Thor was slightly impatient of this aid, even though he himself
had invoked it.

He was half-way up the stairs on his way to the bedroom in the mansard
roof when, on hearing a man's voice, he paused. The voice was saying,
with that inflection in which there was