had come here a few hours back, you would have run away from the
beggar-boy or offered him sixpence. I wonder which it would have been."

She would not admit the truth of it, and a little peevishly contested
her point.

"I shall never believe it. This is just the kind of thing Mr. Geary
would do. He is the most foolish man I have ever known. To leave you all
alone here when he brought you as a stranger to our house. I wonder what
my father would say to that."

She had drawn her cloak about her white throat again and seated herself
near Alban's chair. Imitating her, he sat again and began to talk to her
as naturally as though he had known her all her life. Not a trace of
vexation at the manner of her reception remained to qualify that rare
content he found in her company. Alban had long acquired the sense which
judges every word and act by the particular circumstances under which it
is spoken. He found it natural that Anna Gessner should resent his
presence in the house. He liked her for telling him that it was so.

"My father says that he is going to make an engineer of you--is that
just what you wish, Mr. Kennedy?"

"That's what I don't know," he replied as frankly. "You see, I have
always wanted to get on, but how to do so is what beats me. Engineering
is a big profession and I'm not sure that I have the gifts. There you
have a candid confession. I'm one of those fellows who can do everything
up to a certain point, but a certain point isn't good enough nowadays.
And a man wants money to get on. I'm sure it's easy enough to make a
fortune if you have a decent share of brains and a bigger one capital. I
want to make money and yet the East End has taught me to hate money. If
Mr. Gessner can convince me that I have any claim upon his patronage, I
shall go right into something and see if I cannot come out on top. You,
I suppose, don't think much of the dirty professions. You'd like your
brother to be a soldier, wouldn't you--or if not that, in the navy. Half
the fellows at Westminster wanted to go into the army, just as though
killing other people were the chief business in life. Of course, I
wouldn't run it down--but what I mean to say is, that I never cared at
all about it myself and so I'm not quite the best judge."

His little confession ended somewhat abruptly, for he observed that his
words appeared to distress Anna Gessner beyond all reason. For many
minutes she remained quite silent. When she spoke her eyes w