ld habit of looking at one's chin or
cravat instead of at one's eyes when he spoke to one had grown upon him.
He excused himself soon after tea on the ground of having to be at the
office, and went away smoking a cigarette.

"Grace complained of the way in which his work kept him up nights. He
was never home until after midnight, she said, and sometimes not before
morning. She was afraid it was telling upon his health. 'You must come
and see me often. George.' she said, as she gave me her hand at parting.
'I see very little of my husband now, and, if it were not for Nannie, I
feel as if I should be almost unhappy. Then he would have to do some
other work, though he likes journalism so well.' That was the nearest
she ever came to complaining to me, though I soon knew that she had
plenty of cause. She was not entirely deceived by Herbert's assertions
and excuses. I learned before long, for I made a point of finding out,
that he was never obliged to be at the office after nine o'clock, that
he gambled and drank, and was looked on with unpleasant suspicions by
his employers, so that he might at any time find himself without a
position. He owned no property, and Grace's little patrimony had
disappeared, even to the money they had received for the house, without
leaving the slightest trace. Herbert's ill reputation was common
property in the town, and he and Grace went nowhere together. She had
even given up going to church, that she might be with him for a few
hours on Sundays; and now and then if he took her for a walk and pushed
the baby-carriage through the Capitol-grounds for an hour, she cared
more for it than for a whole stack of Mr. Gittner's sermons. She had no
friends at all, and but few acquaintances, and altogether had much to
bear up under. Right nobly she did it, too; never a word of complaint to
any one: I believe not even to herself would she admit that she was
treated basely.

"They kept on in this way for a year after I opened my office. I heard
from Phil now and then,--brief notes that he was alive and well,--and on
the 11th of June, the date of the old captain's death, Grace always
received a long letter from him, full of references to their childhood,
but telling little of himself. Herbert's reputation became worse and
worse, and he deserved all the evil that was said of him. The tradesmen
refused him credit, and the carpets and furniture of their little
cottage grew old and thread-bare and were not repl