my
foot down."

"You mean that you refused him?"

Esther was interested; she was remembering how Micky had told her that
he had never really cared for any woman in all his life.

"He never asked me, my dear," Miss Mason answered candidly. "I let him
see that it wouldn't be any good if he did, and I know he was
frightfully relieved. We were never so nearly in love with one another
as we were when we both knew that we didn't mean to get married." She
chuckled reminiscently. "It finished me with my people, though," she
added, "so I cleared out and came here."

"And--Micky?" Esther asked. "I--I mean Mr. Mellowes...."

Miss Mason looked faintly surprised.

"How did you know his name?" she asked. "Did I tell you? I suppose I
did. Oh, he's all right; he's the kind of man who always will be all
right. He's got another girl on the tapis now. I don't know if it will
come to anything, though. Anyway, she's not good enough for him."

"You seem very fond of him," Esther said.

"I am. He's a dear! I should love to see him happily married to a girl
with a heart of gold like his own. I think I know him better than most
people, and his little corner of the world would be amazed if they
knew the amount of good Micky manages to do."

She had flushed up with her own enthusiasm. Her curious eyes (Esther
could not decide if they were grey, blue, or green, or a mixture of
all three) were very bright and expressive.

"I've heard lots of rotten things said about him," she went on, "and I
know that none of them are really deserved--at least most of them are
not. He isn't a saint--but what man is, I should like to know? But
Micky's the sort who would give his life for a friend or any one
little and weak. Do you know"--she flung away the half-smoked
cigarette and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees--"last
winter, down in the country, I saw Micky go into a dirty pond in
evening dress to rescue a drowning cat. What do you think of that?"

"A--a--cat!" said Esther faintly. She looked at Charlie, and
remembered how Micky had paid for milk for him the night of their
strange meeting.

"A miserable drowning cat!" Miss Mason went on with tragic emphasis.
"He heard it mewing from the road, and he went in after it without
stopping to think. Now, I call a man a hero who will do a thing like
that when he is on his way to a dance he is very keen about, don't
you?"

"Yes," said Esther. Her heart warmed towards Mellowes. Kind as he had