laboratory."

"That's all, then. I thought perhaps you didn't know."

For an instant the girl was silent; she looked her companion full in the
face.

"He called the afternoon he came. He was almost--pitiable. Father came
home finally."

"Elice!"

Their eyes held. Not three feet separate they stood there; but neither
stirred.

"Mr. Roberts."

In silence the man put on top-coat and gloves; not hastily, nor yet
lingeringly. Equally naturally he picked up his hat.

"December the sixth," he said. "One whole year. To-morrow will be the
seventh--and business--battle, again." For the first time he dallied, the
big soft felt hat turning absently in his hand. "Somehow I'd hoped a lot
for the sixth, planned a lot--and now it's past." His eyes shifted,
fastened elsewhere compellingly.

"It is all past, all over, gone into history, isn't it, Elice?"

"Yes, it's past, Mr. Roberts."

"Not even 'past, Darley,' not even that--yet?"

The brown eyes dropped. They had fought their fight and won--for December
the sixth.

"No. Not even that--yet," she said.

CHAPTER II

ACQUAINTANCE

At the corner next beyond the Gleason home Darley Roberts caught the nine
o'clock car, and remained on it until the end of the division,
practically the extreme opposite edge of the town, was reached. He was
the last passenger to leave, and as the motorman was reversing the
trolley he paused a moment in the vestibule.

"Normal load was it, Johnson?" he asked the conductor. "You rang up
twenty-four fares, I noticed."

The man looked consciously surprised to be called by name.

"Yes, Mr. Roberts," he said; "we carry anywhere between twenty and thirty
at this time of night."

"How about the next trip, nine-thirty?"

"Better yet if anything."

"And the next, the last?"

"Best of all. The straps are nearly always loaded."

Roberts buttoned up his coat deliberately.

"Think it would pay to run a couple of hours longer?" he asked, and this
time the conductor all but flushed at the unexpected confidence.

"Yes; I'm sure it would, Mr. Roberts; especially when the school's in
session. The boys would ride half the night if they could."

"There seems to be a good deal in that. By the way, you have only one
shift on this car now, I understand."

It was the long-hoped-for opportunity and Johnson grew eloquent.

"Right you are, and it's the dog's life for us men. I've had only one hot
meal a day since I took the job." He searche