hing out of the dark, drove the worries from his mind. For a half an
hour they held his gaze. Then he fell into a doze. He was roused by a roar
of laughter, and straightening up in his seat with a jerk he looked angrily
around. Something broadly comic had been flashed upon the screen; and men
and women and children, Italians, Jews and Irish, jammed in close about
him, a dirty and perspiring mass, had burst into a terrific guffaw. Now
they were suddenly tense again and watching the screen in absorbed
suspense, while the crude passions within themselves were played upon in
the glamorous dark. And Roger scanned their faces--one moment smiling, all
together, as though some god had pulled a string; then mawkish,
sentimental, soft; then suddenly scowling, twitching, with long rows of
animal eyes. But eager--eager all the time! Hungry people--yes, indeed!
Hungry for all the good things in the town, and for as many bad things,
too! On one who tried to feed this mob there was no end to their demands!
What was one woman's life to them? Deborah's big family!

* * * * *

Edith came to the house one afternoon, and she was in Deborah's room when
her father returned from his office. Her convalescence over at last, she
was leaving for the mountains.

"Do learn your lesson, Deborah dear," she urged upon her sister. "Let Sarah
pack your trunk at once and come up with me on Saturday night."

"I can't get off for two weeks yet."

"Why can't you?" Edith demanded. And when Deborah spoke of fresh air camps
and baby farms and other work, Edith's impatience only grew. "You'll have
to leave it to somebody else! You're simply in no condition!" she cried.

"Impossible," said Deborah. Edith gave a quick sigh of exasperation.

"Isn't it enough," she asked, "to have worked your nerves to a frazzle
already? Why can't you be sensible? You've got to think of yourself a
little!"

"You'd like me to marry, wouldn't you, dear?" her sister put in wearily.

"Yes, I should, while there is still time! Just now you look far from it!
It's exactly as Allan was saying! If you keep on as you're going you'll be
an old woman at thirty-five!"

"Thank you!" said Deborah sharply. Two spots of color leaped in her checks.
"You'd better leave me, Edith! I'll come up to the mountains as soon as I
can! And I'll try not to look any more like a hag than I have to!
Good-night!"

Roger followed Edith out of the room.

"That last shot of