of the god. David, too, had felt the
barrier of wealth rising, hard and cruel, between him and the friends of
a lifetime, and his heart echoed Sarah's question, "What is life without
friends?"

"Well," he said, with an effort at lightness, "if our old friends
forsake us, we'll have to make new ones."

"But I don't want new friends!" cried Sarah, with the accent of a
fretful child, "Haven't I just told you I couldn't talk to that Mrs.
Emerson?"

A sudden thought seemed to strike David. He took out his watch and
glanced at it. "It's time for you to take another dose of the medicine
the doctor left. I have to go down-town for a few minutes. You lie still
and see if you can't sleep a little."

He handed her the medicine and left the room. Sarah waited till he was
out of the house, and then she rose hastily from the bed and began
making a hurried toilet.

When David reappeared, he found her fully dressed and the marks of tears
gone from her face.

"That medicine's helped you already," he said cheerfully; "and here's a
dictionary, and we'll find out what that word means."

The dictionary was an unfamiliar book to David, but after a patient
search he found the strange word. "Here it is: civic, of or pertaining
to a city, a citizen, or citizenship." He looked hopefully at Sarah. She
shook her head rather sadly.

"I don't know a bit more now than I did before, David, but never mind
that word. I told you awhile ago that I could stand anything, if we only
felt alike about it, and I'm goin' to stand this."

"That's right," said David heartily; "and while you're standing it, I'll
be looking for a way out of it. I didn't build this house for you to
stand, I built it for you to enjoy, and if you don't enjoy it, you don't
have to live in it." At that moment the supper bell rang.

"Come on, honey," said David, holding out his hand to help her from the
chair, "you'll feel better after you've had something to eat."

But Sarah only sighed and shook her head languidly. "If I'd only cooked
the supper, I might feel hungry. But I just don't care whether I eat or
not. I'd rather go hungry than to eat with that Nelly starin' at me."

"You stay up here, Sarah," said David with sudden determination. He
wheeled a small table in front of her and hurried from the room. In a
few minutes Nelly appeared with a laden tray that she set on the table.

"Mr. Maynor says if there's anything else you want, to let him know."
Nelly's tone and man