e little house. Its kindly atmosphere seemed to reach out and envelop
him. Within was order and quiet, the fresh-down bed, the tidiness of
his ordered garments. There was even affection--Reginald, waiting on
the fender for his supper, and regarding him with wary and bright-eyed
friendliness.

Life, that had seemed so simple, had grown very complicated for Sidney.
There was her mother to break the news to, and Joe. Harriet would
approve, she felt; but these others! To assure Anna that she must
manage alone for three years, in order to be happy and comfortable
afterward--that was hard enough to tell Joe she was planning a future
without him, to destroy the light in his blue eyes--that hurt.

After all, Sidney told K. first. One Friday evening, coming home late,
as usual, he found her on the doorstep, and Joe gone. She moved over
hospitably. The moon had waxed and waned, and the Street was dark. Even
the ailanthus blossoms had ceased their snow-like dropping. The colored
man who drove Dr. Ed in the old buggy on his daily rounds had brought
out the hose and sprinkled the street. Within this zone of freshness, of
wet asphalt and dripping gutters, Sidney sat, cool and silent.

"Please sit down. It is cool now. My idea of luxury is to have the
Street sprinkled on a hot night."

K. disposed of his long legs on the steps. He was trying to fit his own
ideas of luxury to a garden hose and a city street.

"I'm afraid you're working too hard."

"I? I do a minimum of labor for a minimum of wage.

"But you work at night, don't you?"

K. was natively honest. He hesitated. Then:

"No, Miss Page."

"But You go out every evening!" Suddenly the truth burst on her.

"Oh, dear!" she said. "I do believe--why, how silly of you!"

K. was most uncomfortable.

"Really, I like it," he protested. "I hang over a desk all day, and in
the evening I want to walk. I ramble around the park and see lovers on
benches--it's rather thrilling. They sit on the same benches evening
after evening. I know a lot of them by sight, and if they're not there
I wonder if they have quarreled, or if they have finally got married and
ended the romance. You can see how exciting it is."

Quite suddenly Sidney laughed.

"How very nice you are!" she said--"and how absurd! Why should their
getting married end the romance? And don't you know that, if you insist
on walking the streets and parks at night because Joe Drummond is here,
I shall have to tell him not