st of them, have made you what I never could,
dig at you as I would. So you've yielded to the demands of your toney
friends?"

"Of course I tried to dress correctly for my up-town friends, when I was
with them. But it was not they who made me careful, though they helped
me to find a good tailor, when I decided that I must dress better."

"Then it was the big law practice, eh? Must keep up appearances?"

"I fancy my dressing would no more affect my practice, than does the
furnishing of my office."

"Then who is she? Out with it, you sly dog."

"Of course I shan't tell you that"

"Peter, will you tell me?" asked Leonore.

Peter smiled into the frank eyes. "Who she is?"

"No. Why you dress so nicely. Please?"

"You'll laugh when I tell you it is my ward."

"Oh, nonsense," laughed Watts. "That's too thin. Come off that roof.
Unless you're guardian of some bewitching girl?"

"Your ward, Peter?"

"Yes. I don't know whether I can make you understand it. I didn't at
first. You see I became associated with the ward, in people's minds,
after I had been in politics for a few years. So I was sometimes put in
positions to a certain extent representative of it. I never thought
much how I dressed, and it seems that sometimes at public meetings, and
parades, and that sort of thing, I wasn't dressed quite as well as the
other men. So when the people of my ward, who were present, were asked
to point me out to strangers, they were mortified about the way I
looked. It seemed to reflect on the ward. The first inkling I had of it
was after one of these parades, in which, without thinking, I had worn a
soft hat. I was the only man who did not wear a silk one, and my ward
felt very badly about it. So they made up a purse, and came to me to ask
me to buy a new suit and silk hat and gloves. Of course that set me
asking questions, and though they didn't want to hurt my feelings, I
wormed enough out of them to learn how they felt. Since then I've spent
a good deal of money on tailors, and dress very carefully."

"Good for 'de sixt'! Hurrah for the unwashed democracy, where one man's
as good as another! So a 'Mick' ward wants its great man to put on all
the frills? I tell you, chum, we may talk about equality, but the lower
classes can't but admire and worship the tinsel and flummery of
aristocracy."

"You are mistaken. They may like to see brilliant sights. Soldiers,
ball-rooms or the like, and who does not? Beauty is aesthetic, n