s for the minute he said no more, her next words came out only
because she supposed them to betray the kindly interest of which he
was in need.

"Then I suppose he left you _a_ big fat wad."

"Yes; but it doesn't do me any good. I mean, it doesn't make me
happy--when I'm not."

"I guess it'd make you a good deal less happy if you didn't have it."

"Perhaps so; I don't think about it either way." He added, after tense
compression of the lips; "I'm all alone in the world--like you."

She was sure now that something was coming, though of what nature lay
beyond her speculative power. She wondered if he could have fallen in
love with her at first sight, realizing a favorite dream she often had
in the subway. Hundreds of times she had beguiled the minutes by
selecting one or another of the wealthy lawyers and bankers, whom she
supposed to be her fellow-travelers there, seeing him smitten by a
glance at her, following her when she got out, and laying his heart
and coronet at her feet before she had run up the steps. If this man
were not a shyster lawyer or a gold brick nut, he might possibly be
doing that.

"It's about a girl," he burst out suddenly. "Half an hour ago she
kicked me out."

"Did she know you had all that dough?"

"Yes, she knew I had all that dough. But she said that since I was
going to the devil, I had better go." He drew a long breath. "Well,
I'm going--perhaps quicker than she thinks."

"Will you do yourself any good by that?"

"No, but I'll do her harm."

"How?"

"I'll show her what she's made of me."

"She can't make anything of you in half an hour or in half a year--not
so long as you've got your wad back of you. If you was to be kicked
out with your pay-envelope stole, and your mother's rings pulled off
your fingers, and her wrist-watch from your wrist, and even your
carfare----"

"Is that what's happened to you?"

"Sure! Half an hour ago, too. Judson Flack! But why should I worry?
Something'll happen before night."

He became emphatic. "Yes, and I'll tell you what it will be. You put
your finger on it just now when you said she couldn't make anything
out of men in half an hour. Well, it's got to be something that would
take just that time--an hour at the most--_and fatal_. Now do you
see?"

She shook her head.

He swung fully round on her from his end of the bench. "Think," he
commanded.

As if with a premonitory notion of what he meant, she answered coldly:
"What's the good