song repeated
itself; then very gently its strength began to fail; and finally it sank
into a ghostly tinkle that still carried the melody till it faded into
silence.

"That," said the reporter, "is the song that was in his heart--'Love's
Golden Dream.' I'm satisfied."

"The last link," shuddered Larmy. "That which seemed corporeal has
melted 'as a breath into the wind.'"

The reporter shovelled the debris into the box, pushed it under a desk,
and the two men hurried to close the office. As they stood on the
threshold a moment, while the reporter clicked the key in the lock, a
paper rustled and they heard a mouse scamper across the floor inside the
empty room.

"Let's go home," shivered Larmy. They started north, which was the short
way home, but Larmy took hold of his companion's arm and said: "No,
let's go this way: there's an electric light here on the corner, and
it's dark down there."

And so they turned into the white, sputtering glare and walked on
without words.

V

The Coming of the Leisure Class

We all are workers in our town, as people are in every small town. It is
always proper to ask what a man does for a living with us, for none of
us has money enough to live without work, and until the advent of
Beverly Amidon, our leisure class consisted of Red Martin, the gambler,
the only man in town with nothing to do in the middle of the day; and
the black boys who loafed on the south side of the bank building through
the long afternoons until it was time to deliver the clothes which their
wives and mothers had washed. Everyone else in town works, and,
excepting an occasional picnic, there is no social activity among the
men until after sundown. But five years ago Beverly Amidon came to town,
and brought with him a large leisure and a taste for society which made
him easily the "glass of fashion and the mould of form" not only in our
little community, but all over this part of the State. Beverly and his
mother, who had come to make their home with her sister, in one of the
big houses on the hill, had money. How much, we had no idea. In a small
town when one has "money" no one knows just how much or how little, but
it must be over fifteen thousand dollars, otherwise one is merely "well
fixed."

[Illustration: And brought with him a large leisure and a taste for
society]

But Beverly was a blessing to our office. We never could have filled the
society column Saturday without him, for he was a c