"M. BIXBY."

Another morning found Jim so ill that they sent for the doctor. On the
same day Inches came in and offered seventy-five cents for the stock.
Marietta had not told him that it was sold and she did not propose to do
so. In the afternoon the price had "jumped" to ninety cents, but by that
time she was too anxious about Jim to care.

For five weeks the "Art Emporium" was closed, and in that time the face
of the world had changed for Marietta. She realized the change when she
came downstairs and opened the shop again. It was impossible to feel
that life was restored to its old basis. There was a change too in her,
which was patent to the most casual observer. It was, indeed, a very wan
and thin Marietta that at last came forward to meet her customers; her
eyes looked alarmingly big, and though nothing could disturb the pose of
the beautiful head, there was a droop in the figure, that betokened
bodily and mental exhaustion.

A good many customers came in to make Easter purchases,--for the
following Sunday was Easter,--and many others to inquire for Jim. As the
old, familiar life began to reassert itself, as she began to feel at
home again in the old, accustomed surroundings, her mind recurred, in a
half-dazed way, to her speculation. She did not herself know much about
it, for Dayton had never sent her her certificate. Probably he had come
with it when the shop was closed. She supposed she must be too tired to
have much courage; that must be why her heart sank at the thought of
what she had done. She was sitting by the work-table, her head in her
hands, pondering dully. At the sound of the shop-bell she looked up,
mechanically, and saw Inches coming in.

"Good morning, Mrs. Jim," he said. "How's your husband?"

"Jim's better, thank you," she replied, and the sound of her own
confident words dispelled the clouds.

Inches looked at her narrowly, and then he began pulling the ears of a
mounted fox-skin that was lying on the counter, as he remarked casually:
"Hope you got rid of your 'H. O. P.' in time."

"In time?" she asked. "In time? What do you mean?"

"Why, before they closed down. You sold out, I hope?"

There was a sudden catch in her breath.

"Yes, I sold out some time ago."

"Glad of that," he declared, with very evident relief, suddenly losing
interest in the fox's ears. Inches had none of Dayton's prejudices in
regard to woman's "sphere," but he was none the le