lat on
the grass in the warm Indian summer weather, the two old fellows
entertaining the child with all the stories they could think of, Felix
looking on, replenishing his pipe from time to time, his own spirit
soothed and comforted by the happiness around him.

Even Kitty noticed the new light in his eyes when they all came back,
for Felix brought the two old painters into her sitting-room so that
they might renew an acquaintance they had made on the night of the ball
and "become better known to a woman of distinction," as he laughingly
put it, which so delighted the dear soul that that night she said to her
husband:

"He'll stop trampin' pretty soon, I think, John. Somethin's soaked into
him in the last day or two. It's them old painters, I think, that's
helpin' him. He come in a while ago with that child clingin' to him and
them two mossbacks followin' behin', and his face was all ironed out,
and I could see a song trembling on his lips all ready to burst out.
Pray God it'll last!"

Chapter X

While it was true that Felix, since Masie's party, had gained the
complete good-will of his neighbors, there were, strange as it may
seem, certain individuals who, while they acknowledged the charm of his
personality, resented his quiet reserve. What nettled them most was his
not having told them at once who he was and why he had come to Kling's,
and why he had stayed on wrapped in mystery. They considered themselves,
so to speak, as defrauded of something which was their right and said so
in plain terms.

"Well, I hope it won't be a pair of handcuffs they'll surprise him with
some day"; or, "When that pal of his turns up, then you'll see fun,"
being some of the suggestions frequently made over counters, to be
answered by his loyal adherents with a "Well, I don't care what ye say.
I ain't never come across no man any better than Felix O'Day since I
lived here, and that's no lie."

There were others, too, who refused to believe any good of the
self-contained, reticent stranger. The nephew of somebody's
brother-in-law, who lived in Lexington Avenue, was one. He had been
promised, by the cousin of somebody else, the position of clerk with
Otto Kling, and although Otto had never heard of it, he WOULD have heard
of it and the nephew been duly installed but for "a galoot who SAID his
name was O'Day."

And another thing. What was a fellow, who would work under a Dutchman
like Kling, for only enough to pay his board