the table. He ate and drank ravenously. He was, in
fact, half starved but barely conscious of it.

"He spoke of the great things?"

Julia shook her head. She was busy cutting bread and butter.

"Scarcely at all. What chance was there? And then Richard Graveling
came."

"They were friends? They took to one another?" the young man asked
eagerly.

She hesitated.

"I am not sure about that. Graveling was in one of his tempers. He was
rude, and he said things to me which I felt obliged to contradict."

"They did not quarrel?"

She laughed softly.

"Imagine Maraton quarrelling! I think that he is above such pettiness,
Aaron."

"Graveling is a good fellow and a hard worker," Aaron declared. "The
one thing which he lacks is enthusiasm. He doesn't really feel. He
does his work well because it is his work, not because of what it leads
to."

"You are right," Julia admitted. "He has no enthusiasm. That is why he
never moves people when he speaks. I must go soon, Aaron. Will you lie
down and rest for a time here?"

"Rest!" He looked at her scornfully. "How can one rest! Tell me where
this house of his is? I shall go and wait outside. I must see him."

She glanced at the clock, and paused for a moment to think.

"Aaron," she decided, "I will be late for once. Come with me and I will
take you to him. He was kind to me last night. We will go together to
his house and wait till he is down. Then I will tell him how you have
longed for his coming, and perhaps--"

"Perhaps what?" Aaron interrupted. "You can't escape from it! You have
promised. You shall take me! I am ready to go. Perhaps what?"

"I was only thinking," she went on, "you find it, I know, impossible to
settle down to work anywhere. But with him, if he could find
something--"

Aaron sprang to his feet.

"I would work my fingers to the bone!" he cried. "It is a glorious
idea, Julia. I have to give up the collecting--my bicycle has gone.
Let us start."

They went out together into the streets, thinly peopled, as yet, for it
was barely six o'clock. Julia would have loitered, but her brother
forced her always onward. She laughed as they arrived at the Square
where Maraton lived. Every house they passed was shuttered and silent.

"How absurd we are!" she murmured. "He will not be up for hours. Very
likely even the servants will not be astir."

"Servants!"

Aaron repeated the word, frowning. She only smiled.

"You mustn't be foolish, dear. Don't have