R I

THE INSPIRATION

A tall young man sped swiftly up the wide stone steps leading to the
doorway of a mansion in one of Chicago's most fashionable avenues. After
pushing the button sharply he jerked out his watch and guessed at the
time by the dull red light from the panel in the door. Then he hastily
brushed from the sleeve of his coat the telltale billiard chalk, whose
presence reminded him that a general survey might be a wise precaution.
He was rubbing a white streak from his trousers' leg when the door flew
open and the butler admitted him to the hallway. This personage relieved
him of his hat, coat and stick and announced:

"Miss Vernon is w'itin' for you, sir."

"How the devil did I happen to let eight o'clock strike nine before I
knew it?" muttered the visitor. He was at the drawing-room door as he
concluded this self-addressed reproach, extending both hands toward the
young woman who came from the fireplace to meet him.

"How late you are, Hugh," she cried, half resentfully. He bent forward
and kissed her.

"Late? It isn't late, dear. I said I couldn't come before eight, didn't
I? Well, it's eight, isn't it?"

"It's nearly seventy minutes past eight, sir. I've been waiting and
watching the hands on the clock for just sixty minutes."

"I never saw such a perfect crank about keeping time as that
grandfatherly clock of yours. It hasn't skipped a second in two
centuries, I'll swear. You see, I was playing off the odd game with
Tom Ditton."

He dropped lazily into a big arm-chair, drove his hands into his pockets
and stretched out his long legs toward the grate.

"You might have come at eight, Hugh, on this night if no other. You knew
what important things we have to consider." Miss Vernon, tall and
graceful, stood before him with her back to the fire. She was
exceedingly pretty, this girl whom Hugh had kissed.

"I'm awfully sorry, Grace; but you know how it is when a fellow's in a
close, hard game--especially with a blow-hard like Tom Ditton."

"If I forgive you again, I'm afraid you'll prove a begging husband."

"Never! Deliver me from a begging husband. I shall assert all kinds of
authority in my house, Miss Vernon, and you'll be in a constant state of
beggary yourself. You'll have to beg me to get up in the morning, beg
me to come home early every night, beg me to swear off divers things,
beg me to go to church, beg me to buy new hats for you, beg me to eat
things you cook, beg me to--"

"I s