oks as if he had suffered awfully, don't you think?"

"Oh possibly--suffering, or sin--one can scarcely tell which it may be
at a glance. I'll step and get you the cream and sugar, Mrs. Bonnivel."

Joyce continued to watch the man furtively, neglecting her own food.
Every time the sandwiches went by he snatched at them, gulping down his
coffee, between whiles, in great hot swallows that made his dreadful
eyes stand out still more than was natural. Used as the attendants were
to irregularities in this non-etiquetical company, they showed their
disgust plainly at his boorishness. Two of them stopped a moment near
Joyce's corner, to discuss him in no measured terms. One said,

"Not another thing does he get here, the brute! If he thinks we're
keeping a free lunch counter for the likes of him he's mistaken. He
hasn't got common decency."

Joyce saw him clear the last crumb from his plate, and glance furtively
to and fro from under his bent brows, with a movement that filled her
with disgust and pity.

"The poor wretch is starving!" she thought. "The sight and smell of food
drive him wild. Where can he have been?"

Even as she was thinking this there was a general movement, and he too
rose from his place with the rest. Cup in hand, he neared the table as
if to deposit it there before leaving; but his eyes were on a
half-emptied tray of the sandwiches just placed there, and as he stooped
to set down the cup he made a quick movement, and scooped up a little
heap of the slices into the hollow of his hands, from which they slid
into a coat pocket with dextrous suddenness. Some one stepped forward
with an exclamation at which, with one bound, he sprang between the
Madame and Joyce, dodged behind the screen, and when the attendant
reached it, had disappeared. The latter turned back with a crestfallen
air.

"Did you see that?" he cried excitedly. "I never saw such a hog!"

Joyce rose, and touched him lightly on the arm.

"I think it's hardly worth making a fuss about," she said gently. "He
seemed very hungry--starving, indeed. There's plenty of everything,
isn't there?"

"Oh, yes, but it makes me mad to be so imposed on! I don't believe the
fellow belongs here, anyhow."

"He looked like a sailor to me," she observed thoughtfully.

"Umph! Like a jail-bird I should say, Miss. Will I bring you some more
coffee now?"

"No, nothing more, thank you. Just kindly take my cup."

Larry came up to them, wiping the perspiratio