red, "much better."

"Good." He added, "I should n't think it safe for you to be out alone
at night. Have n't there been a good many highway robberies recently
in your neighborhood?"

"You have heard?"

"It would be difficult to listen to the newsboys and not hear that.
The last one, a week ago, made the fourth, didn't it?"

"I don't know. I seldom read the papers. They are too horrible."

"I will gladly escort you if--"

"I could n't think of troubling you," she protested, starting at once
for the door. "I 'm in the machine, so I 'm quite safe. Good night."

With a nod and smile to both men she went out.

Donaldson himself prepared to go at once.

"Well, old man," he apologized nervously to the chemist, "pardon me for
boring you so long. It is bad taste I know for a man to air such views
as mine, but it has done me good."

"Take my advice and forget them yourself. Go into the country. Loaf a
little in the sunshine. Stay a week. I 'm going off for a while
myself."

"You leave--"

"Within a few days, possibly. I can't tell."

"Well, s' long and a pleasant trip to you."

Donaldson gripped the older man's hand. The latter gazed at him
affectionately, apprehensively.

"See here, Peter," he broke out earnestly. "There is one thing even
better for you than the country, a thing that includes the sunshine and
everything else worth while in life. I have hesitated about mentioning
it, but this girl who was here made me think of it again. You know I
'm not a sentimental man, Peter?"

"Unless you have changed. But your panacea?"

"Love."

"That's a generic term."

"Just plain human love, love for a woman like this one who was here. I
wish you knew her. She 'd be good for you; she 'd give your present
self-centred life a broader meaning."

Donaldson turned away.

"Barstow," he replied uneasily, "you 're good,--good clear through, but
we move in different worlds. It is n't in me to love as you mean. I
'm too critical, which is to say too selfish."

"I think you are selfish, Peter," Barstow agreed frankly, "but I don't
think it's your nature. You 've got into the Slough of Despond, and
the only thing that will drag you out of that is love, love of
something outside yourself. Try it."

Donaldson shook his head.

"You 're as good as gold," he declared, "but the things which content
you and me are not the same. Good night."

"Good night. Be sure to drop in again when I get back."