a very shrewd
censor. "Karlov feels it his duty to kill off all his countryman who do
not agree with his theories. He wanted these funds here, but Hawksley
was too clever for him. Remember, now, not a word of this to Hawksley. I
tell you this in confidence."

"I promise."

"You'll have to spend the night here. It's round four, and the power has
been shut off. There's the stairs, but it would be dawn before you reach
the street."

"Who cares?"

"I do. I don't believe you're in a good mood to send back to that
garlicky warren. I wish to the Lord you'd leave it!"

"It's difficult to find anything desirable within my means. Rents are
terrifying. I'll sleep on the divan. A rug or a blanket. I'm a silly
fool, I suppose."

"You can have a guest room."

"I'd rather the divan; less scandalous. Cutty, I forgot. He played for
me."

"What? He did?"

"I had to run out of the room because some things he said choked me up.
Didn't care whether he died or not. He was even lonelier than I. I lay
down on the divan, and then I heard music. Funny, but somehow I fancied
he was calling me back; and I had to hang on to the divan. Cutty, he is
a great violinist."

"Are you fond of music?"

"I am mad about it! I'm always running round to concerts; and I'd walk
from Battery to Bronx to hear a good violinist."

Fiddles and Irish hearts. Swiftly came the vision of Hawksley fiddling
the heart out of this lonely girl--if he had the chance. And he, Cutty,
was going to fascinate her--with what? He rose and took her by the
shoulders, bringing her round so that the light was full in her face.
Slate-blue eyes.

"Kitty, what would you say if I kissed you?" Inwardly he asked: "Now,
what the devil made me say that?"

The sinister and cynical idea leaped from its ambush. "Why, Cutty, I--I
don't believe I should mind. It's--it's you!" Vile wretch that she was!

Cutty, noting the lily succeeding the rose, did not kiss her. Fate has
a way of reversing the illogical and giving it logical semblance. It was
perfectly logical that he should not kiss her; and yet that was exactly
what he should have done. The fatherliness of the salute--and he
couldn't have made it anything else--would have shamed Kitty's peculiar
state of mind out of existence and probably sent back to its eternal
sleep that which was strangely reawaking in his lonely heart.

"Forgive me, Kitty. That wasn't exactly nice of me, even if I was trying
to be funny."

She tore aw