he said, "I won't even pledge myself to come and see you,
Miss D'Alloi. Remember, friendship comes from the word free. If we are
to be friends, we must each leave the other to act freely."

"Well," said Leonore, "that is, I suppose, a polite way of saying that
you don't intend to come. Now I want to know why you won't?"

"The reasons will take too long to explain to you now, so I'll defer the
telling till the first time I call on you." Peter was smiling down at
her.

Miss D'Alloi looked up at Peter, to see what meaning his face gave his
last remark. Then she held out her two hands. "Of course we are to be
the best of friends," she said. Peter got a really good look down into
those eyes as they shook hands.

The moment this matter had been settled, Leonore's manner changed. "So
this is the office of the great Peter Stirling?" she said, with the
nicest tone of interest in her voice, as it seemed to Peter.

"It doesn't look it," said Watts. "By George, with the business people
say your firm does, you ought to do better than this. It's worse even
than our old Harvard quarters, and those were puritanical enough."

"There is a method in its plainness. If you want style, go into Ogden's
and Rivington's rooms."

"Why do you have the plain office, Mr. Stirling?"

"I have a lot of plain people to deal with, and so I try to keep my room
simple, to put them at their ease. I've never heard of my losing a
client yet, because my room is as it is, while I should have frightened
away some if I had gone in for the same magnificence as my partners."

"But I say, chum, I should think that is the sort you would want to
frighten away. There can't be any money in their business?"

"We weren't talking of money. We were talking of people. I am very glad
to say, that with my success, there has been no change in my relations
with my ward. They all come to me here, and feel perfectly at home,
whether they come as clients, as co-workers, or merely as friends."

"Ho, ho," laughed Watts. "You wily old fox! See the four bare walls. The
one shelf of law books. The one cheap cabinet of drawers. The four
simple chairs, and the plain desk. Behold the great politician! The man
of the people."

Peter made no reply. But Leonore said to him, "I'm glad you help the
poor people still, Mr. Stirling," and gave Peter another glimpse of
those eyes. Peter didn't mind after that.

"Look here, Dot," said Watts. "You mustn't call chum Mr. Stirling. That