o the former. "Annie's job's sure, I
guess, as long as she wants it, and she can give her mother somethin'
every month. But you're the man of the house now, and you've got to
steer the ship and keep it afloat. That means work, and hard work,
lots of it, too. You can do it, if you've got the grit. If I can find
a better place and more pay for you, I will, but you mustn't depend on
that. It's up to you, I tell you, and you've got to show what's in you.
If you get stuck and need advice, come to me."

He handed the priest a sum of money to cover immediate contingencies,
and departed. His letter to Abbie that afternoon was so blue that the
housekeeper felt sure he was "coming down" with some disease or other.
He had been riding in that awful subway, where the air--so the papers
said--was not fit to breathe, and just as like as not he'd caught
consumption. His great-uncle on his mother's side died of it, so it "run
in the family." Either he must come home or she should come to him, one
or the other.

But before evening his blueness had disappeared. He had just returned
to his room, after stepping into the hall to drop his letter in the mail
chute, when his niece knocked at the door. He was surprised to see her,
for she had not spoken to him, except in brief reply to questions, since
their misunderstanding in that very room. He looked at her wonderingly,
not knowing what to say or what to expect; but she spoke first.

"Captain Warren," she began, hurriedly, "the last time I came to
you--the last time I came here, I came to ask a favor, and you--I
thought you--"

She was evidently embarrassed and confused. Her guardian was
embarrassed, also, but he tried to be hospitable.

"Yes, Caroline," he said, gravely, "I know what you mean. Won't
you--won't you sit down?"

To his surprise, she accepted the invitation, taking the same chair she
had taken on the occasion of their former interview. But there was a
look in her eyes he had never seen there before; at least, not when she
was addressing him.

She went on, speaking hastily, as though determined to head off any
questioning on his part.

"Captain Warren," she began once more, "the time I came to you in this
room you were, so I thought, unreasonable and unkind. I asked you for
money to help a poor family in trouble, and you refused to give it to
me."

"No, Caroline," he interrupted, "I didn't refuse, you only thought I
did."

She held up her hand. "Please let me go on,