comedian.

"I wish you had told me," he said, quietly, "because I could have helped
you."

Claude lay still. His eyes grew brilliant. "Helped me--how?"

"Helped you in whatever it is you're trying to do." He added, with
significance, "You are trying to do something, aren't you?"

Claude endeavored to gain time by saying, "Trying to do what?"

"You're--" Thor hesitated, but dashed in. "You're in love with her?"

It was still to gain time that Claude replied, "What do you think?"

Thor's heart bounded with a great hope. Perhaps Claude was not in love
with her. He had not been noticeably moved as yet. In that case it might
be possible--barely possible--that after Rosie had outlived her
disappointment there might be a chance that he.... But he dared not
speculate. Mustering everything that was histrionic within him, he said,
with the art that conceals art, "I think you are--decidedly."

Claude rolled partly over in bed. "That's about it."

The confession was as full as one brother could expect from another.
Thor's heart sank again. He managed, however, to keep on the high plane
of art as he brought out the words, "And what about her?"

Again Claude's avowal was as ardent as the actual conditions called for.
"Oh, I guess she's all right."

"So--what now?"

Claude rolled back toward his brother, raising his head slightly from
the pillow. "Well--what now?"

"You're going to be married, I suppose?"

Claude lifted himself on his elbow. "Married on fifteen hundred a year?"
He went on, before Thor could say anything, "If there was nothing else
to consider!"

Thor felt stirrings of hope again. "Then, if you're not going to be
married, what do you mean?"

"What do I mean? What can I mean?"

"Oh, come, Claude! You're not a boy any longer. You know perfectly well
that a man of honor--with your traditions--can't trifle with a girl like
that--or break her heart--or--or ruin her."

"I'm not doing any of the three. She knows I'm not. She knows I'm only
in the same box she's in herself."

"That is, you're both in love, without seeing how you're going to--"

Claude lurched forward in the bed. "Look here, Thor; if you want to
know, it's this. I've tried to leave the girl alone--and I can't. I'm
worse than a damn fool; I'm every sort of a hound. I can't marry her,
and I can't give her up. When I haven't seen her for a week, I'm
frantic; and when I do see her I swear to God I'll never see her again.
So now you know."