tiful."

She went in herself once, when the door was open, and saw Starke: he was
in his shirt-sleeves, driving in a wedge that had come out; his face was
parched, looked contracted, his eyes glazed. She spoke to him, but he
made no answer, went from side to side of the engine, working with it,
glancing furtively at the men, who stood gravely talking. The girl was
nervous, and felt she should cry, if she stayed there. She called the
dog, but he would not come; he was crouched with his head on his
fore-paws, watching Starke.

"It is curious how the dog follows him," she said, after she had gone
out, to Andy, who was in the back porch, watching the rain come up.

"I've noticed animals did it to him. My Jerry knows him as well as me.
What chances has he, Miss?"

"I cannot tell."

There was a pause.

"You heard Dr. Bowdler say he was married. Do you know his wife?" she
asked.

Some strange doubts had been in Andy's brain for the last hour, but he
never told a secret.

"It was in the market I come, to know Mr. Starke," he said, confusedly.
"At the eatin'-stalls. He never said to me as he hed a wife."

The rain was heavy and constant when it came, a muddy murkiness in the
air that bade fair to last for a day or more. Evening closed in rapidly.
Andy sat still on the porch; he could shuffle his heels as he pleased
there, and take a sly bit of tobacco, watching, through a crack between
the houses, the drip, drip, of rain on the umbrellas going by, the lamps
beginning to glow here and there in the darkness, listening to the soggy
footfalls and the rumble of the streetcars.

"This is tiresome,"--putting one finger carefully under the rungs of his
chair, where he had the lantern. "I wonder ef Jane is waiting for
me,--an' for any one else."

He trotted one foot, and chewed more vehemently. On the verge of some
mystery, it seemed to him.

"Ef it is--What ef he misses, an' won't go back with me? God help the
woman! What kin _I_ do?"

After a while, taking out the lantern, and rubbing it where the damp had
dimmed it,--

"I'll need it to-night, that's sure!"

Now and then he bent his head, trying to catch a sound from the lobby,
but to no purpose. About five o'clock, however, there was a sudden
sound, shoving of chairs, treading, half-laughs, as of people departing.
The door opened, and the gentlemen came out into the lighted hall, in
groups of two or three,--some who were to dine with the Doctor passing
up the stai