d be very
glad to help in any way if--"

He was hesitating, trying to say the right thing and very fearful
of saying too much, of seeming to be curious concerning her personal
affairs, when she interrupted him. She was standing by the kitchen door,
with one hand upon the knob, and she spoke without looking at him.

"There is nothin' you or anybody can do," she said. "And there isn't a
single bit of use talkin' about it. Trot along and have your walk,
Mr. Bangs. And don't pay any attention to what I said. It was just
silliness. I get a little nervous, sometimes, but that's no reason for
my makin' other people that way. Have a good walk."

He did not have a very good walk and his thoughts while walking were not
as closely centered about ancient inscriptions, either Egyptian or East
Wellmouthian, as was usually the case upon such excursions. Miss Martha
Phipps was worried, she had said so, herself. Yes, and now that he
thought of it, she looked worried. She was in trouble of some sort. A
dreadful surmise entered his mind. Was it possible that he, his presence
in her house, was the cause of her worry? He had been very insistent
that she take him as boarder and lodger. The sum he paid each week
was ridiculously small. Was it possible that, having consented to the
agreement, she had found it a losing one and was too kind-hearted and
conscientious to suggest a change? He remembered agreements which he had
made, and having made, had hesitated to break, even though they turned
out to be decidedly unprofitable and unpleasant. He had often been
talked into doing things he did not want to do, like buying the yellow
cap at Beebe's store. Perhaps he had talked Miss Phipps into taking him
as boarder and lodger and now she was sorry.

By the time Galusha returned from his walk he was in what might be
described as a state of mind.

As he entered the Phipps' gate he met some one coming down the path
toward it. That some one, it developed, was no less a person than Mr.
Horatio Pulcifer. Raish and Galusha had not encountered each other for
some time, weeks, in fact, and Mr. Bangs expected the former's greeting
to be exuberant and effusive. His shoulders and his spirit were alike
shrinking in anticipation.

But Raish did not shout when he saw him, did not even shake hands, to
say nothing of thumping the little man upon the back. The broad and
rubicund face of East Wellmouth's leading politician and dealer in
real estate wore not a gr