the happiness multiplied.
That will be your chance to contribute your share to the real life which
you will jointly live."

"You have remembered what I said that first time we walked home from Mr.
Hamlen's!"

"I shall always remember it. From it I first learned the depth and
beauty of your womanhood."

"Please, Mr. Huntington--" she begged deprecatingly; but her companion
saw no reason to recall the words.

On the second morning the passengers came up on deck in anticipation of
landing in the afternoon. Even Edith Stevens had passed through the
ordeal without the fatal results she had predicted. Cosden seized the
first opportunity for a final word of reconciliation.

"Don't give me up," he urged. "I've learned a lot of things down here,
and I appreciate what you have done for me more than I have shown. I'm
going to do a bit of sandpapering when I get home, and I want you to let
me run in to see you once in a while in New York, just to report
progress."

And Edith, either because after her experiences she felt too weak to
combat him, or because she thought he needed encouragement, ingloriously
capitulated.

The final good-byes were said on the dock, after the customs officials
had completed their inspection.

"Of course we'll see you in New York now and then," Mrs. Thatcher said
to the two men; "and when we open up at the shore we must plan a real
reunion."

"I shall hope to have Hamlen here by then," Huntington remarked.

"You are more optimistic than I; but in the mean time I shall be eager
to receive news of him through you."

"Drop in at the office next time you're in town, Cosden," said Thatcher;
"we'll talk over Consolidated Machinery and the Bermuda Trolleys."

"I'm thinking of getting out of business altogether, to devote myself to
art," was Cosden's enigmatical reply; but the expression on Edith
Stevens' face showed that at least she understood.

* * * * *

XXII

* * * * *

Nearly a month passed after their return to Boston before Huntington and
Cosden really saw anything of each other. They met casually, they
telephoned, they lunched in company with other friends at down-town
clubs, but neither one suggested an old-time getting together, and each
felt relieved by the omission of the other. Yet the reason each man held
for this feeling, had he openly acknowledged it, was as opposed to the
other's as were the characterist