stand guard against the onslaught of his own sorrows while keeping
up the fight, and this with renewed vigor. He would earn money, too,
since this was so necessary, laboring with his hands, if need be; and he
would do it all with a wide-open heart.

Chapter V

If O'Day's presence was a welcome addition to Kitty's household, it
was nothing compared to the effect produced at Kling's. Long before the
month was out he had not only earned his entire wages five times over by
the changes he had wrought in the arrangement and classification of the
stock, but he had won the entire confidence of his employer. Otto had
surrendered when an old customer who had been in the habit of picking up
rare bits of china, Japanese curios, and carvings at his own value had
been confronted with the necessity of either paying Felix's price or
going away without it, O'Day having promptly quadrupled the price on a
piece of old Dresden, not only because the purchaser was compelled to
have it to complete his set but because the interview had shown that the
buyer was well aware he had obtained the former specimens at one-fourth
of their value.

And the same discernment was shown when he was purchasing old furniture,
brass, and so-called Sheffield plate to increase Otto's stock. If the
articles offered could still boast of either handle, leg, or back of
their original state and the price was fair, they were almost always
bought, but the line was drawn at the fraudulent and "plugged-up"
sideboards and chairs with their legs shot full of genuine worm-holes;
ancient Oriental stuffs of the time of the early Persians (one year
out of a German loom), rare old English plate, or undoubted George
III silver, decorated with coats of arms or initials and showing those
precious little dents only produced by long service--the whole fresh
from a Connecticut factory. These never got past his scrutiny. While it
was true, as he had told Kling, that he knew very little in the way of
trade and commerce--nothing which would be of use to any one--he was
a never-failing expert when it came to what is generally known as
"antiques" and "bric-a-brac."

Masie--Kling's only child--a slender, graceful little creature with a
wealth of gold-yellow hair flying about her pretty shoulders and a pair
of blue eyes in which were mirrored the skies of ten joyous springs,
had given her heart to him at once. She had never forgotten his gentle
treatment of her dog Fudge, whos