y striding
deliverer, he gasped, "How'd you do it?"

"Nothing simpler. I merely showed Mr. What's-his-name that he was
making an ass of himself. I've spent a fortune here; know the owners,
too. Nice chap, that manager, but he has no business running a hotel,
and I so informed him. He'll probably annoy you to death with his
attentions. He'll let you play 'shinny' in the halls if you want to.
Now--wait!" The speaker laid a finger upon his lips; his eyes were
dancing. He knocked sharply at the Briskow door and cried, "Baggage
ready, ma'am?"

There was a stir from within, the door was slowly opened by a bent,
pathetic figure of grief.

"Ma!" Gray cried, and he held out his arms.

Perhaps it was his virile personality radiating confidence, security,
or perhaps it was Gus Briskow's shining face that told the story;
whatever the fact, Ma Briskow uttered a thin, broken wail, then walked
into those open arms and laid her head upon Gray's breast. She clung to
him eagerly and the tears she had been blinking so hard to restrain
flowed silently.

"Oh-n-h! We ain't goin'away!" she said. "We ain't--goin' away!"

"Of course not. Gus misunderstood. The manager merely wanted you to
move--into a larger, finer suite, and he is positively distressed at
the thought of your leaving. The poor man is dashing about collecting
an armful of roses for you and Allie. He wants to come in person and
apologize."

There was another sound and Gray looked up to see Allie standing in the
doorway to her bedroom; with one hand she clutched the jamb, the other
was pressed to her bosom; she was staring at him as at an apparition.
The girl was quite colorless, there was a look almost of fright in her
eyes, and when he came toward her she swayed weakly. Her hands, when he
took them, were icy; it shocked him to see how worn, how weary she had
grown.

It was several hours later. In the parlor of the new suite, a spacious,
sunny room, fragrant with flowers and cheerful with brilliant
cretonnes, Gray and Briskow were talking. Allie and her mother could be
seen in their bedrooms putting away the last of their belongings.
Gray's eyes had been drawn, at frequent intervals, to the younger
woman, for the change in her became the more amazing the more he
observed her, and he was still striving to reconcile this creature to
the picture he had held in his mind. In a few months Allie had become
almost a stranger to him. It was a marked and yet a subtle change that