woman who sits here. He sees only what he would paint."

As time went by, this fact, which she always felt, was in itself a
fascination.

In the chill, calm atmosphere of the place there was repose for her.
She found nothing to resent, nothing to steel herself against, she
need no longer think of herself at all. She had time to think of the
man in whose presence she sat. From the first she had seen something
touching in his slight stooping figure, thin young face and dark
womanish eyes, and after she had heard the simple uneventful history
of his life, she found them more touching still.

He was a New Englander, the last surviving representative of a frail
and short-lived family. His parents had died young, leaving him quite
alone, with a mere pittance to depend upon, and throughout his whole
life he had cherished but one aim.

"When I was a child I used to dream of coming here," he said, "and as
I grew older I worked and struggled for it. I knew I must gain my end
some day, and the time came when it was gained."

"And this is the end?" she asked, glancing round at the poor place.
"This is all of life you desire?"

He did not look up at her.

"It is all I have," he answered.

She wondered if he would not ask her some questions regarding herself,
but he did not.

"He does not care to know," she thought sullenly. And then she told
herself that he did know, and a mocking devil of a smile settled on
her lip and was there when he turned toward her again.

But the time never came when his manner altered, when he was less
candid and gentle, or less grateful for the favor she was bestowing
upon him.

She scarcely knew how it was that she first began to know the sound of
his foot upon the stairway and to listen for it. Her earliest
consciousness of it was when once she awakened suddenly out of a dead
sleep at night and found herself sitting upright with her hand upon
her heavily throbbing heart.

"What is it?" she cried in a loud whisper. But she spoke only to
herself and the darkness. She knew what it was and did not lie down
again until the footsteps had reached the top of the last flight and
the door above had opened and closed.

The time arrived when there was scarcely a trifling incident in his
everyday life which escaped her. She saw each sign of his poverty and
physical weakness. He grew paler day by day. There were days when his
step flagged as he went up and down the staircase; some mornings he
did no