he gate. Archie was sorry to lose him, for Leary was an
appealing old fellow, and he had hoped for a chance to coax from him
some reminiscences of his experiences.

Leary vanished into the starlit dusk as placidly as though he hadn't
tucked away in his clothing sixty thousand dollars to which he had no
lawful right or title. There was something ludicrous in the whole
proceeding. While Archie had an income of fifty thousand dollars a year
from investments, he had always experienced a pleasurable thrill at
receiving the statement of his dividends from his personal clerk in the
broker's office, where he drew an additional ten thousand as a silent
partner. Leary's method of dipping into the world's capital seemed quite
as honorable as his own. Neither really did any work for the money. This
he reflected was both morally and economically unsound, and yet Archie
found himself envying Leary the callousness that made it possible for
him to pocket sixty thousand stolen dollars without the quiver of an
eyelash.

II

The Governor, smoking a pipe on the veranda and chatting with Mrs.
Walker, recalled him from his meditations to suggest that he show a
decent spirit of appreciation of the Walkers' hospitality by repairing
to the kitchen and helping Sally with the dishes. In his youth Archie
had been carefully instructed in the proper manner of entering a parlor,
but it was with the greatest embarrassment that he sought Sally in her
kitchen. She stood at the sink, her arms plunged into a steaming dish
pan, and saluted him with a cheery hello.

"I was just wondering whether you wouldn't show up! Not that you had to,
but it's a good deal more fun having somebody to keep you company in the
kitchen."

"I should think it would be," Archie admitted, recalling that his mother
used to express the greatest annoyance when the servants made her
kitchen a social center. "Give me a towel and I'll promise not to break
anything."

"You don't look as though you'd been used to work much," she said, "but
take off your coat and I'll hang an apron on you."

His investiture in Mrs. Walker's ample apron made it necessary for Sally
to stand quite close to him, and her manner of compressing her lips as
she pinned the bib to the collar of his waistcoat he found wholly
charming. His heart went pit-a-pat as her fingers, moist from the suds,
brushed his chin. She was quite tall; taller than Isabel, who had fixed
his standard of a proper height for gir