bles
exquisitely furnished, and the carpets underfoot, thick-piled and
deep-toned, gave a singular solemnity to the function of eating. It was
a temple raised to the glory of terrapin and "alligator pears"; and as
the Captain moved slowly across the aisles, closely attended by a
zealous waiter he smiled and said to his wife: "This is a long ways from
Sibley and the Golden Eagle, Bertie, don't you think?"

"It sure is," she replied, and her laughing lips and big pansy-purple
eyes made her seem very young and very gay again.

Around her men and women in evening dress were feeding subduedly, while
bevies of hawklike waiters swooped and circled, bearing platters,
tureens, and baskets of iced wine-bottles. It made the hotel at Chicago
appear like a plain, old-fashioned tavern, so remote, so European, so
lavish, and yet so exaggeratedly quiet, was this service. Some of the
women at the tables were spangled like the queens of the stage; mainly
they were not only gloriously gowned, but in harmony with the sumptuous
beauty around them. Their adornments made Bertha feel very rural and
very shy.

"I wish I was younger," the Captain said, "I'd take ye to the theatre
to-night, but I'm too tired. I could go for a couple of hours, but--to
miss me sleep--"

"Don't think of it," she hastened to command. "I don't want to go. I'm
just about all in, myself."

"'Tis a shame, darlin', surely it is, to keep you from havin' a good
time just because I am an old helpless side o' beef. 'Tis not in me
heart to play dog in the manger, Bertie. If ye'd like to go, do so.
Lucius will take ye."

"Nit," she curtly replied; "you rest up, and we'll go to-morrow night.
We might take another turn and see the town by electric light; you could
kind o' lean back in the car and take it easy."

This they did; and it was more moving, more appalling, to the girl than
by day. The fury of traffic on Broadway, the crowds of people, the
endless strings of brilliantly lighted street-cars, the floods of
'busses, auto-cars, cabs, and carriages poured in upon the girl's
receptive brain a tide of perceptions of the city's wealth, power, and
complexity of social life which amazed while it exalted her. The idea
that she might share in all this dazzled her. "We could live here," she
thought; "the Captain's income would keep us just anyway we wanted to
live." But a vision of her own beautiful house under the shadow of the
great peak came back to reproach her. Her hors