s ceased to have any particular value for the time.

In a moment Miss De Voe joined him at the fire. A small table was moved
up, and a plate of fruit, and a cup of coffee placed upon it.

"That is all, Morden," she said. "It is so nice of you to have come this
evening. I was promising myself a very solitary time, and was dawdling
over my dinner to kill some of it. Isn't it a dreadful night?"

"It's blowing hard. Two or three times I thought I should have to give
it up."

"You didn't walk?"

"Yes. I could have taken a solitary-car that passed, but the horses were
so done up that I thought I was better able to walk."

Miss De Voe touched the bell. "Another cup of coffee, Morden, and bring
the cognac," she said. "I am not going to let you please your mother
to-night," she told Peter. "I am going to make you do what I wish." So
she poured a liberal portion of the eau-de-vie into Peter's second cup,
and he most dutifully drank it. "How funny that he should be so
obstinate sometimes, and so obedient at others," thought Miss De Voe. "I
don't generally let men smoke, but I'm going to make an exception
to-night in your case," she continued.

It was a sore temptation to Peter, but he answered quickly, "Thank you
for the thought, but I won't this evening."

"You have smoked after dinner already?"

"No. I tried to keep my pipe lighted in the street, but it blew and
sleeted too hard."

"Then you had better."

"Thank you, no."

Miss De Voe thought her former thought again.

"Where do you generally dine?" she asked.

"I have no regular place. Just where I happen to be."

"And to-night?"

Peter was not good at dodging. He was silent for a moment. Then he said,
"I saw rather a curious thing, as I was walking up. Would you like to
hear about it?"

Miss De Voe looked at him curiously, but she did not seem particularly
interested in what Peter had to tell her, in response to her "yes." It
concerned an arrest on the streets for drunkenness.

"I didn't think the fellow was half as drunk as frozen," Peter
concluded, "and I told the policeman it was a case for an ambulance
rather than a station-house. He didn't agree, so I had to go with them
both to the precinct and speak to the superintendent."

"That was before your dinner?" asked Miss De Voe, calmly.

It was a very easily answered question, apparently, but Peter was silent
again.

"It was coming up here," he said finally.

"What is he trying to keep back?" aske