but done at all. I am
trying to screw my courage to the point of asking you----"

"To be sure I will," he interrupted, eagerly, "and what is a great
deal stronger proof of friendship, I'll tell you what I think, even if
my opinion is nihilistic."

He followed her into the study, and she laid her manuscript on the
table and left him without a word.

The story was the usual magazine length, about five thousand words,
and Deena's handwriting was as clear and direct as her character. At
the end of half an hour she heard his voice calling her name, and she
joined him.

"It is very creditable," he said. "It fairly glows with vitality.
Without minute description, you have conveyed your story in pictures
which lodge in the imagination; but in construction it is poor--your
presentment of the plot is amateurish, and you have missed making your
points tell by too uniform a value to each."

"I understand you," said Deena, looking puzzled, "and yet, somehow,
fail to apply what you say to what I have written."

He drew a chair for her beside his own, and began making a rapid
synopsis of her story, to which he applied his criticism, showing her
what should be accentuated, what only hinted, what descriptions were
valuable, what clogged the narrative. She was discouraged but
grateful.

"You advise me to destroy it?" she asked.

"I advise you to rewrite it," he answered. Then, after a pause, he
asked: "Why do you want to write?"

"For money," she answered.

"But Simeon told me," French remonstrated, "that he had left you the
rent of this house as well as part of his salary, and a power of
attorney that makes you free of all he possesses. Why add this kind of
labor to a life that is sober enough already? Amuse yourself; look the
way you did that day at Wolfshead; be young!"

"Simeon is very generous," she said, loyally, silent as to the
restrictions put upon his provisions for her maintenance, as well as
the fact that his salary only covered the letter of credit he took
with him for such expenses as he might incur outside the expedition.
"In spite of his kindness, can't you understand that I am proud to be
a worker? Have you lived so long in the companionship of New England
women without appreciating their reserves of energy? I have to make
use of mine!"

"Then use it in having 'a good time.' I conjure you, in the name, as
well as the language, of young America."

Deena shook her head, and French stood hesitating near th