"Don't you know?" she cried. "I'm staying here. Judge Pike has charge
of all my property; he was the administrator, or something." Then
seeing him chopfallen and aghast, she went on: "Of course you don't
know! You don't know anything about me. You haven't even asked!"

"You're going to live HERE?" he gasped.

"Will you come to see me?" she laughed. "Will you come this afternoon?"

He grew white. "You know I can't," he said.

"You came here once. You risked a good deal then, just to see Mamie
dance by a window. Don't you dare a little for an old friend?"

"All right," he gulped. "I'll try."

Mr. Bantry had come down to the gate and was holding it open, his eyes
fixed upon Ariel, within them a rising glow. An impression came to Joe
afterward that his step-brother had looked very handsome.

"Possibly you remember me, Miss Tabor?" said Eugene, in a deep and
impressive voice, lifting his hat. "We were neighbors, I believe, in
the old days."

She gave him her hand in a fashion somewhat mannerly, favoring him with
a bright, negligent smile. "Oh, quite," she answered, turning again to
Joe as she entered the gate. "Then I shall expect you?"

"I'll try," said Joe. "I'll try."

He stumbled away; Respectability and he, together,
interfering alarmingly with the comfort of
Mr. Flitcroft, who had stopped in the middle of the pavement to stare
glassily at Ariel. Eugene accompanied the latter into the house, and
Joe, looking back, understood: Mamie had sent his step-brother to
bring Ariel in--and to keep him from following.

"This afternoon!" The thought took away his breath, and he became
paler.

The Pike brougham rolled by him, and Sam Warden, from the box, favored
his old friend upon the pavement with a liberal display of the whites
of his eyes. The Judge, evidently, had been detained after
services--without doubt a meeting of the church officials. Mrs. Pike,
blinking and frightened, sat at her husband's side, agreeing feebly
with the bull-bass which rumbled out of the open window of the
brougham: "I want orthodox preaching in MY church, and, by God, madam,
I'll have it! That fellow has got to go!" Joe took off his hat and
wiped his brow.

XII

TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY

Mamie, waiting just inside the door as Ariel and Eugene entered, gave
the visitor a pale greeting, and, a moment later, hearing the wheels of
the brougham crunch the gravel of the carriage