to move, and a long ways, too. How well you're
looking--fit as a fiddle."

"Yes; I am feelin' fine. Where yer goin'? Troupin'?"

"No, indeed."

"Thought not. What's comin' off now?"

"I'm going to be married this afternoon," she said proudly.

"Married?" he exclaimed in astonishment.

"And then I'm going West."

Leaving the trunks, which he had been inspecting, he walked toward her
and held out his hands.

"Now, I'm just glad to hear that," he said warmly. "Ye know when I
heard how--how things was breakin' for ye--well, I ain't knockin' or
anythin' like that, but me and the missis have talked ye over a lot. I
never did think this feller was goin' to do the right thing by yer.
Brockton never looked to me like a fellow who would marry anybody, but
now that he's going through just to make you a nice, respectable wife,
I guess everything must have happened for the best."

He looked at her, and paused, as if expecting she would take him more
into her confidence, but she made no reply, and averted her eyes.
Sitting on the trunk beside her, he went on:

"Ye see, I wanted to thank you for what you did a couple of weeks ago.
Burgess wrote me a letter, and told me I could go ahead of one of his
big shows if I wanted to come back, and offered me considerable money.
He mentioned your name, Miss Laura, and I talked it over with the
missis, and--well, I can tell ye now when I couldn't if ye weren't to
be hooked up--we decided that I wouldn't take that job, comin' as it
did from you, and the way I knew it was framed up."

"Why not?" she asked in surprise.

"Well, ye see," he said with some embarrassment, "there are three kids,
and they're all growing up, all of them in school, and the missis,
she's just about forgot the show business, and she's playing star part
in the kitchen, juggling dishes and doing flip-flaps with pancakes;
and we figured that as we'd always gone along kinder clean-like, it
wouldn't be good for the kids to take a job comin' from Brockton--because
you--you--well--you--you----"

Laura rose hastily, and her face reddened.

"I know. You thought it wasn't decent. Is that it?"

"Oh, not exactly; only--well, you see I'm gettin' along pretty good now.
I got a little one-night stand theatre out in Ohio--manager of it, too.
The town is called Gallipolis."

"Gallipolis?" she echoed, puzzled.

"Oh, that ain't a disease," he smiled. "It is the name of a town. Maybe
you don't know much about Gallipolis,