Hook; that experiments
with Chaosite as a bursting charge might begin as soon as he was ready
with his argon primer; that officers connected with the bureau of
ordnance and the marine laboratory had recommended the advisability of
certain preliminary tests, and that the general staff seemed inclined to
consider the matter seriously.

This meant work--hard, constant, patient work. But it did not mean money
to help him support the heavy burdens he had assumed. If there were to
be any returns, all that part of it lay in the future, and the future
could not help him now.

Yet, unless still heavier burdens were laid upon him, he could hold on
for the present; his bedroom cost him next to nothing; breakfast he
cooked for himself, luncheon he dispensed with, and he dined at
random--anywhere that appeared to promise seclusion, cheapness, and
immunity from anybody he had ever known.

A minute and rather finicky care of his wardrobe had been second nature
to him--the habits of a soldier systematised the routine--and he was
satisfied that his clothes would outlast winter demands, although
laundry expenses appalled him.

As for his clubs, he hung on to them, knowing the importance of
appearances in a town which is made up of them. But this expense was all
he could carry, for the demands of the establishment at Edgewater were
steadily increasing with the early coming of winter; he was sent for
oftener, and a physician was now in practically continual attendance.

Also, three times a week he boarded the Sandy Hook boat, returning
always at night because he dared not remain at the reservation lest an
imperative telegram from Edgewater find him unable to respond.

So, when in November the first few hurrying snow-flakes whirled in among
the city's canons of masonry and iron, Selwyn had already systematised
his winter schedule; and when Nina opened her house, returning from
Lenox with Eileen to do so, she found that Selwyn had made his own
arrangements for the winter, and that, according to the programme,
neither she nor anybody else was likely to see him oftener than one
evening in a week.

To Boots she complained bitterly, having had visions of Selwyn and
Gerald as permanent fixtures of family support during the season now
imminent.

"I cannot understand," she said, "why Philip is acting this way. He need
not work like that; there is no necessity, because he has a comfortable
income. If he is determined to maintain a stuffy a