in the House; of the Dark Cloud obscuring the New
Day, and the Violets that had faded behind a Curtain, etc.; but
chiefly of a Little Talk with Mamma, which produced Moral
Results, after all. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

XXXII

Time's Jests, and now the Perfect Apology, to stand a Lifetime in
Brick and Stone; concluding with a Little Scene, which she will
remember while she lives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

XXXIII

Her Last Day, in this History; how she wakes with a Wonder in her
Heart, has her Banquet laid at the Board of the Cooneys, dreams
back over the Long Strange Year; finally how she learns Something
that not Everybody Knows: what it is like at the End of the World 476

XXXIV

In which to love much is to be much loved, and Kern's Dearest Dream
(but one) comes True. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

ILLUSTRATIONS

"_IS_ THIS MISS HETH?" (Frontispiece)

"THERE'S _SOMETHING_ WRONG, SIR, MR. V.V." . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

"_PLEASE_ DON'T TROUBLE, HUGO" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

"PAPA--I WANT TO INTRODUCE A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE--DR. VIVIAN". . . 474

From drawings by Raymond M. Crosby

V.V.'s Eyes

I

Two Houses, with a great Gulf between; of V. Vivian, M.D.,
and what he thought of John the Baptist.

V. Vivian, M.D. by the paint upon his window, dwelt in the Dabney House;
Mr. Heth--pronounced _Heath_ if you value his wife's good opinion--dwelt
in the House of his cognomen. Between the two lay a scant mile of city
streets. But then this happened to be the particular mile which
traversed, while of course it could not span, the Great Gulf fixed.

In one sense (though the wrong one) the Dabney House was the more
impressive of the pair of domiciles: for it was seven stories tall and
had two hundred rooms; while the House of Heth was only four stories and
basement, and had but fourteen rooms, counting in the trunk-room. But
physical size is size only: whereby hang few tales. Over and in the Heth
House there prevailed the most charming air of ease with dignity, of
taste plus means, that you could well imagine: while the circumambient
atmosphere of the Dabney House, not to put too fine a point on it, was
the abomination of desolation, or that abomination's little brother.
Before the one stretched a brilliant street where imposing residences
crowded each other just as close as they could crowd, and