red because some one had told him what the
professor said on reading his paper. It was nothing but, "I had supposed
Lanley was intelligent." Never again had he had that professor's
attention for a single instant. This, it seemed to him, was about to
happen to him again, now when it was too late in his life to do anything
but despair.

He called the waiter, paid his bill and tip,--he was an extremely liberal
tipper; "it's expected of us," he used to say, meaning that it was
expected of people like the New York Lanleys,--and went away.

In old times he had been an inventor of many clever tricks for getting
up-town by unpopular elevated trains and horse-cars that avoided the
crowd, but the subway was a great leveler, and he knew no magic except to
take a local in rush hours. At three o'clock, however, even this was not
necessary. He took an express, and got off at the Grand Central, turned
up Park Avenue, and then east. He had just found out that he was going to
visit Mrs. Wayne.

He read the names in the vestibule, never doubting that Dr. Parret was
a masculine practitioner, and hesitated at the name of Wayne. He
thought he ought to ring the bell, but he wanted to go straight up.
Some one had left the front door unlatched. He pushed it open and began
the steep ascent.

She came to the door of the flat herself. She had a funny little gray
shawl about her shoulders and a pen in her hand. She tried to make her
voice sound very cordial as she greeted him, but he thought he caught
something that sounded as if, while perfectly well disposed to him, she
couldn't for the life of her imagine why he had come.

"Come in," she said, "though I'm afraid it's a little cold in here. Our
janitor--"

"Let me light your fire for you," he answered, and extracting a
parlor-match from his pocket,--safety-matches were his bugbear,--he
stooped, and put the flame to the fire. As he did so he understood
that it was not the mere forgetfulness of a servant that had left it
unlighted, but probably a deliberate economy, and he rose crimson
and unhappy.

It took him some time to recover, and during the entire time she sat in
her gray shawl, looking very amiable, but plainly unable to think of
anything to say.

"I saw your son in Farron's office to-day."

"Mr. Farron has been so kind, so wonderfully kind!"

Only a guilty conscience could have found reproach in this statement, and
Lanley said:

"And I hear he is dining at my daughter's thi