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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lo, Michael!, by Grace Livingston Hill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lo, Michael!
+
+Author: Grace Livingston Hill
+
+Posting Date: November 25, 2011 [EBook #9816]
+Release Date: February, 2006
+First Posted: October 20, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LO, MICHAEL! ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Josephine
+Paolucci, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LO, MICHAEL!
+
+BY
+
+GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  "But, lo, Michael, one of the
+  chief princes, came to help me."
+
+  --DANIEL, 10:13.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+"Hi, there! Mikky! Look out!"
+
+It was an alert voice that called from a huddled group of urchins in
+the forefront of the crowd, but the child flashed past without heeding,
+straight up the stone steps where stood a beautiful baby smiling on the
+crowd. With his bundle of papers held high, and the late morning sunlight
+catching his tangle of golden hair, Mikky flung himself toward the little
+one. The sharp crack of a revolver from the opposite curbstone was
+simultaneous with their fall. Then all was confusion.
+
+It was a great stone house on Madison Avenue where the crowd had gathered.
+An automobile stood before the door, having but just come quietly up, and
+the baby girl three years old, in white velvet, and ermines, with her dark
+curls framed by an ermine-trimmed hood, and a bunch of silk rosebuds poised
+coquettishly over the brow vying with the soft roses of her cheeks came out
+the door with her nurse for her afternoon ride. Just an instant the nurse
+stepped back to the hall for the wrap she had dropped, leaving the baby
+alone, her dark eyes shining like stars under the straight dark brows, as
+she looked gleefully out in the world. It was just at that instant, as if
+by magic, that the crowd assembled.
+
+Perhaps it would be better to say that it was just at that minute that the
+crowd focused itself upon the particular house where the baby daughter
+of the president of a great defaulting bank lived. More or less all the
+morning, men had been gathering, passing the house, looking up with
+troubled or threatening faces toward the richly laced windows, shaking
+menacing heads, muttering imprecations, but there had been no disturbance,
+and no concerted crowd until the instant the baby appeared.
+
+The police had been more or less vigilant all the morning but had seen
+nothing to disturb them. The inevitable small boy had also been in
+evidence, with his natural instinct for excitement. Mikky with his papers
+often found himself in that quarter of a bright morning, and the starry
+eyes and dark curls of the little child were a vision for which he often
+searched the great windows as he passed this particular house: but the man
+with the evil face on the other side of the street, resting a shaking hand
+against the lamp post, and sighting the baby with a vindictive eye, had
+never been seen there before. It was Mikky who noticed him first: Mikky,
+who circling around him innocently had heard his imprecations against the
+rich, who caught the low-breathed oath as the baby appeared, and saw the
+ugly look on the man's face. With instant alarm he had gone to the other
+side of the street, his eye upon the offender, and had been the first to
+see the covert motion, the flash of the hidden weapon and to fear the
+worst.
+
+But a second behind him his street companions saw his danger and cried out,
+too late. Mikky had flung himself in front of the beautiful baby, covering
+her with his great bundle of papers, and his own ragged, neglected little
+body; and receiving the bullet intended for her, went down with her as she
+fell.
+
+Instantly all was confusion.
+
+A child's cry--a woman's scream--the whistle of the police--the angry roar
+of the crowd who were like a pack of wild animals that had tasted blood.
+Stones flew, flung by men whose wrongs had smothered in their breasts and
+bred a fury of hate and murder. Women were trampled upon. Two of the great
+plate glass windows crashed as the flying missiles entered the magnificent
+home, regardless of costly lace and velvet hangings.
+
+The chauffeur attempted to run his car around the corner but was held up at
+once, and discreetly took himself out of the way, leaving the car in the
+hands of the mob who swarmed into it and over it, ruthlessly disfiguring it
+in their wrath. There was the loud report of exploding tires, the ripping
+of costly leather cushions, the groaning of fine machinery put to torture
+as the fury of the mob took vengeance on the car to show what they would
+like to do to its owner.
+
+Gone into bankruptcy! He! With a great electric car like that, and servants
+to serve him! With his baby attired in the trappings of a queen and
+his house swathed in lace that had taken the eyesight from many a poor
+lace-maker! He! Gone into bankruptcy, and slipping away scot free, while
+the men he had robbed stood helpless on his sidewalk, hungry and shabby and
+hopeless because the pittances they had put away in his bank, the result of
+slavery and sacrifice, were gone,--hopelessly gone! and they were too old,
+or too tired, or too filled with hate, to earn it again.
+
+The crowd surged and seethed madly, now snarling like beasts, now rumbling
+portentously like a storm, now babbling like an infant; a great emotional
+frenzy, throbbing with passion, goaded beyond fear, desperate with need;
+leaderless, and therefore the more dangerous.
+
+The very sight of that luxurious baby with her dancing eyes and happy
+smiles "rolling in luxury," called to mind their own little puny darling,
+grimy with neglect, lean with want, and hollow-eyed with knowledge
+aforetime. Why should one baby be pampered and another starved? Why did the
+bank-president's daughter have any better right to those wonderful furs and
+that exultant smile than their own babies? A glimpse into the depths of the
+rooms beyond the sheltering plate glass and drapery showed greater contrast
+even than they had dreamed between this home and the bare tenements they
+had left that morning, where the children were crying for bread and the
+wife shivering with cold. Because they loved their own their anger burned
+the fiercer; and for love of their pitiful scrawny babies that flower-like
+child in the doorway was hated with all the vehemence of their untamed
+natures. Their every breath cried out for vengeance, and with the brute
+instinct they sought to hurt the man through his child, because they had
+been hurt by the wrong done to their children.
+
+The policeman's whistle had done its work, however. The startled inmates of
+the house had drawn the beautiful baby and her small preserver within the
+heavy carven doors, and borne them back to safety before the unorganized
+mob had time to force their way in. Amid the outcry and the disorder no one
+had noticed that Mikky had disappeared until his small band of companions
+set up an outcry, but even then no one heard.
+
+The mounted police had arrived, and orders were being given. The man who
+had fired the shot was arrested, handcuffed and marched away. The people
+were ordered right and left, and the officer's horses rode ruthlessly
+through the masses. Law and order had arrived and there was nothing for the
+downtrodden but to flee.
+
+In a very short time the square was cleared and guarded by a large force.
+Only the newspaper men came and went without challenge. The threatening
+groups of men who still hovered about withdrew further and further. The
+wrecked automobile was patched up and taken away to the garage. The street
+became quiet, and by and by some workmen came hurriedly, importantly, and
+put in temporary protections where the window glass had been broken.
+
+Yet through it all a little knot of ragged newsboys stood their ground in
+front of the house. Until quiet was restored they had evaded each renewed
+command of officer or passer-by, and stayed there; whispering now and again
+in excited groups and pointing up to the house. Finally a tall policeman
+approached them:
+
+"Clear out of this, kids!" he said not unkindly. "Here's no place for you.
+Clear out. Do you hear me? You can't stay here no longer:"
+
+Then one of them wheeled upon him. He was the tallest of them all, with
+fierce little freckled face and flashing black eyes in which all the evil
+passions of four generations back looked out upon a world that had always
+been harsh. He was commonly known as fighting Buck.
+
+"Mikky's in dare. He's hurted. We kids can't leave Mick alone. He might be
+dead."
+
+Just at that moment a physician's runabout drew up to the door, and the
+policeman fell back to let him pass into the house. Hard upon him followed
+the bank president in a closed carriage attended by several men in uniform
+who escorted him to the door and touched their hats politely as he vanished
+within. Around the corners scowling faces haunted the shadows, and murmured
+imprecations were scarcely withheld in spite of the mounted officers. A
+shot was fired down the street, and several policemen hurried away. But
+through it all the boys stood their ground.
+
+"Mikky's in dare. He's hurted. I seen him fall. Maybe he's deaded. We kids
+want to take him away. Mikky didn't do nothin', Mikky jes' tried to save
+der little kid. Mikky's a good'un. You get the folks to put Mikky out here.
+We kids'll take him away"
+
+The policeman finally attended to the fierce pleading of the ragamuffins.
+Two or three newspaper men joined the knot around them and the story was
+presently written up with all the racy touches that the writers of the hour
+know how to use. Before night Buck, with his fierce black brows drawn in
+helpless defiance was adorning the evening papers in various attitudes as
+the different snapshots portrayed him, and the little group of newsboys and
+boot-blacks and good-for-nothings that stood around him figured for once in
+the eyes of the whole city.
+
+The small band held their place until forcibly removed. Some of them were
+barefoot, and stood shivering on the cold stones, their little sickly,
+grimy faces blue with anxiety and chill.
+
+The doctor came out of the house just as the last one, Buck, was being
+marched off with loud-voiced protest. He eyed the boy, and quickly
+understood the situation.
+
+"Look here!" he called to the officer. "Let me speak to the youngster. He's
+a friend, I suppose, of the boy that was shot?"
+
+The officer nodded.
+
+"Well, boy, what's all this fuss about?" He looked kindly, keenly into the
+defiant black eyes of Buck.
+
+"Mikky's hurted--mebbe deaded. I wants to take him away from dare," he
+burst forth sullenly. "We kids can't go off'n' leave Mikky in dare wid de
+rich guys. Mikky didn't do no harm. He's jes tryin' to save de kid."
+
+"Mikky. Is that the boy that took the shot in place of the little girl?"
+
+The boy nodded and looked anxiously into the kindly face of the doctor.
+
+"Yep. Hev you ben in dare? Did youse see Mikky? He's got yaller hair. Is
+Mikky deaded?"
+
+"No, he isn't dead," said the physician kindly, "but he's pretty badly
+hurt. The ball went through his shoulder and arm, and came mighty near some
+vital places. I've just been fixing him up comfortably, and he'll be all
+right after a bit, but he's got to lie very still right where he is and be
+taken care of."
+
+"We kids'll take care o' Mikky!" said Buck proudly. "He tooked care of
+Jinney when she was sick, an' we'll take care o' Mikky, all right, all
+right. You jes' brang him out an' we'll fetch a wheelbarry an' cart him
+off'n yer han's. Mikky wouldn't want to be in dare wid de rich guys."
+
+"My dear fellow," said the doctor, quite touched by the earnestness in
+Buck's eyes, "that's very good of you, I'm sure, and Mikky ought to
+appreciate his friends, but he's being taken care of perfectly right where
+he is and he couldn't be moved. It might kill him to move him, and if he
+stays where he is he will get well. I'll tell you what I'll do," he added
+as he saw the lowering distress in the dumb eyes before him, "I'll give you
+a bulletin every day. You be here to-night at five o'clock when I come out
+of the house and I'll tell you just how he is. Then you needn't worry about
+him. He's in a beautiful room lying on a great big white bed and he has
+everything nice around him, and when I came away he was sleeping. I can
+take him a message for you when I go in to-night, if you like."
+
+Half doubtfully the boy looked at him.
+
+"Will you tell Mikky to drop us down word ef he wants annythin'? Will you
+ast him ef he don't want us to git him out?"
+
+"Sure!" said the doctor in kindly amusement. "You trust me and I'll make
+good. Be here at five o'clock sharp and again to-morrow at quarter to
+eleven."
+
+"He's only a slum kid!" grumbled the officer. "'Tain't worth while to take
+so much trouble. 'Sides, the folks won't want um botherin' 'round."
+
+"Oh, he's all right!" said the doctor. "He's a friend worth having. You
+might need one yourself some day, you know. What's your name, boy? Who
+shall I tell Mikky sent the message?"
+
+"Buck," said the child gravely, "Fightin' Buck, they calls me."
+
+"Very appropriate name, I should think," said the doctor smiling. "Well,
+run along Buck and be here at five o'clock."
+
+Reluctantly the boy moved off. The officer again took up his stand in front
+of the house and quiet was restored to the street.
+
+Meantime, in the great house consternation reigned for a time.
+
+The nurse maid had reached the door in time to hear the shot and see the
+children fall. She barely escaped the bullet herself. She was an old
+servant of the family and therefore more frightened for her charge than
+for herself. She had the presence of mind to drag both children inside the
+house and shut and lock the door immediately, before the seething mob could
+break in.
+
+The mistress of the house fell in a dead faint as they carried her little
+laughing daughter up the stairs and a man and a maid followed with the
+boy who was unconscious. The servants rushed hither and thither; the
+housekeeper had the coolness to telephone the bank president what had
+happened, and to send for the family physician. No one knew yet just who
+was hurt or how much. Mikky had been brought inside because he blocked the
+doorway, and there was need for instantly shutting the door. If it had been
+easier to shove him out the nurse maid would probably have done that. But
+once inside common humanity bade them look after the unconscious boy's
+needs, and besides, no one knew as yet just exactly what part Mikky had
+played in the small tragedy of the morning.
+
+"Where shall we take him?" said the man to the maid as they reached the
+second floor with their unconscious burden.
+
+"Not here, Thomas. Here's no place for him. He's as dirty as a pig. I can't
+think what come over Morton to pull him inside, anyway. His own could have
+tended to him. Besides, such is better dead!"
+
+They hurried on past the luxurious rooms belonging to the lady of the
+mansion; up the next flight of stairs, and Norah paused by the bath-room
+door where the full light of the hall windows fell upon the grimy little
+figure of the child they carried.
+
+Norah the maid uttered an exclamation.
+
+"He's not fit fer any place in this house. Look at his cloes. They'll have
+to be cut off'n him, and he needs to go in the bath-tub before he can be
+laid anywheres. Let's put him in the bath-room, and do you go an' call
+Morton. She got him in here and she'll have to bathe him. And bring me a
+pair of scissors. I'll mebbe have to cut the cloes off'n him, they're so
+filthy. Ach! The little beast!"
+
+Thomas, glad to be rid of his burden, dropped the boy on the bath-room
+floor and made off to call Morton.
+
+Norah, with little knowledge and less care, took no thought for the life
+of her patient. She was intent on making him fit to put between her clean
+sheets. She found the tattered garments none too tenacious in their hold
+to the little, half-naked body. One or two buttons and a string were their
+only attachments. Norah pulled them off with gingerly fingers, and holding
+them at arm's length took them to the bath-room window whence she pitched
+them down into the paved court below, that led to the kitchen regions.
+Thomas could burn them, or put them on the ash pile by and by. She was
+certain they would never go on again, and wondered how they had been made
+to hold together this last time.
+
+Morton had not come yet, but Norah discovering a pool of blood under the
+little bare shoulder, lifted him quickly into the great white bath-tub and
+turned on the warm water. There was no use wasting time, and getting blood
+on white tiles that she would have to scrub. She was not unkind but she
+hated dirt, and partly supporting the child with one arm she applied
+herself to scrubbing him as vigorously as possible with the other hand.
+The shock of the water, not being very warm at first, brought returning
+consciousness to the boy for a moment, in one long shuddering sigh. The
+eyelashes trembled for an instant on the white cheeks, and his eyes opened;
+gazed dazedly, then wildly, on the strange surroundings, the water, and the
+vigorous Irish woman who had him in her power. He threw his arms up with
+a struggling motion, gasped as if with sudden pain and lost consciousness
+again, relaxing once more into the strong red arm that held him. It was
+just at this critical moment that Morton entered the bath-room.
+
+Morton was a trim, apple-cheeked Scotch woman of about thirty years, with
+neat yellow-brown hair coiled on the top of her head, a cheerful tilt to
+her freckled nose, and eyes so blue that in company with her rosy cheeks
+one thought at once of a flag. Heather and integrity exhaled from her very
+being, flamed from her cheeks, spoke from her loyal, stubborn chin, and
+looked from her trustworthy eyes. She had been with the bank president's
+baby ever since the little star-eyed creature came into the world.
+
+"Och! look ye at the poor wee'un!" she exclaimed. "Ye're hurtin' him,
+Norah! Ye shouldn't have bathed him the noo! Ye should've waited the
+docther's comin'. Ye'll mebbe kin kill him."
+
+"Ach! Get out with yer soft talk!" said Norah, scrubbing the more
+vigorously. "Did yez suppose I'll be afther havin' all this filth in the
+nice clean sheets? Get ye to work an' he'p me. Do ye hold 'im while I
+schrub!"
+
+She shifted the boy into the gentler arm's of the nurse, and went to
+splashing all the harder. Then suddenly, before the nurse could protest,
+she had dashed a lot of foamy suds on the golden head and was scrubbing
+that with all her might.
+
+"Och, Norah!" cried the nurse in alarm. "You shouldn't a done that! Ye'll
+surely kill the bairn. Look at his poor wee shoulder a bleedin', and his
+little face so white an' still. Have ye no mercy at all, Norah? Rinse off
+that suds at once, an' dry him softly. What'll the docther be sayin' to ye
+fer all this I can't think. There, my poor bairnie," she crooned to the
+child, softly drawing him closer as though he were conscious,--
+
+"There, there my bairnie, it'll soon be over. It'll be all right in just a
+minute, poor wee b'y! Poor wee b'y! There! There--"
+
+But Norah did her perfect work, and made the little lean body glistening
+white as polished marble, while the heavy hair hung limp like pale golden
+silk.
+
+The two women carried him to a bed in a large room at the back of the
+house, not far from the nursery, and laid him on a blanket, with his
+shoulder stanched with soft linen rags. Morton was softly drying his hair
+and crooning to the child--although he was still unconscious--begging
+Norah to put the blanket over him lest he catch cold; and Norah was still
+vigorously drying his feet unmindful of Morton's pleading, when the doctor
+entered with a trained nurse. The boy lay white and still upon the blanket
+as the two women, startled, drew back from their task. The body, clean now,
+and beautifully shaped, might have been marble except for the delicate blue
+veins in wrists and temples. In spite of signs of privation and lack of
+nutrition there was about the boy a showing of strength in well developed
+muscles, and it went to the heart to see him lying helpless so, with his
+drenched gold hair and his closed eyes. The white limbs did not quiver, the
+lifeless fingers drooped limply, the white chest did not stir with any sign
+of breath, and yet the tender lips that curved in a cupid's bow, were not
+altogether gone white.
+
+"What a beautiful child!" exclaimed the nurse involuntarily as she came
+near the bed. "He looks like a young god!"
+
+"He's far more likely to be a young devil," said the doctor grimly, leaning
+over him with practised eyes, and laying a listening ear to the quiet
+breast. Then, he started back.
+
+"He's cold as ice! What have you been doing to him? It wasn't a case of
+drowning, was it? You haven't been giving him a bath at such a time as
+this, have you? Did you want to kill the kid outright?"
+
+"Oauch, the poor wee b'y!" sobbed Morton under her breath, her blue eyes
+drenched with tears that made them like blue lakes. "He's like to my own
+wee b'y that I lost when he was a baby," she explained in apology to the
+trained nurse who was not, however, regarding her in the least.
+
+Norah had vanished frightened to consult with Thomas. It was Morton who
+brought the things the doctor called for, and showed the nurse where to put
+her belongings; and after everything was done and the boy made comfortable
+and brought back to consciousness, it was she who stood at the foot of the
+bed and smiled upon him first in this new world to which he opened his
+eyes.
+
+His eyes were blue, heavenly blue and dark, but they were great with a
+brave fear as he glanced about on the strange faces. He looked like a wild
+bird, caught in a kindly hand,--a bird whose instincts held him still
+because he saw no way of flight, but whose heart was beating frightfully
+against his captor's fingers. He looked from side to side of the room, and
+made a motion to rise from the pillow. It was a wild, furtive motion, as of
+one who has often been obliged to fly for safety, yet still has unlimited
+courage. There was also in his glance the gentle harmlessness and appeal of
+the winged thing that has been caught.
+
+"Well, youngster, you had a pretty close shave," said the doctor jovially,
+"but you'll pull through all right! You feel comfortable now?"
+
+The nurse was professionally quiet.
+
+"Poor wee b'y!" murmured Morton, her eyes drenched again.
+
+The boy looked from one to another doubtfully. Suddenly remembrance dawned
+upon him and comprehension entered his glance. He looked about the room and
+toward the door. There was question in his eyes that turned on the doctor
+but his lips formed no words. He looked at Morton, and knew her for the
+nurse of his baby. Suddenly he smiled, and that smile seemed to light up
+the whole room, and filled the heart of Morton with joy unspeakable. It
+seemed to her it was the smile of her own lost baby come back to shine upon
+her. The tears welled, up and the blue lakes ran over. The boy's face was
+most lovely when he smiled.
+
+"Where is--de little kid?" It was Morton whose face he searched anxiously
+as he framed the eager question, and the woman's intuition taught her how
+to answer.
+
+"She's safe in her own wee crib takin' her morning nap. She's just new
+over," answered the woman reassuringly.
+
+Still the eyes were not satisfied.
+
+"Did she"--he began slowly--"get--hurted?"
+
+"No, my bairnie, she's all safe and sound as ever. It was your own self
+that saved her life."
+
+The boy's face lit up and he turned from one to another contentedly. His
+smile said: "Then I'm glad." But not a word spoke his shy lips.
+
+"You're a hero, kid!" said the doctor huskily. But the boy knew little
+about heroes and did not comprehend.
+
+The nurse by this time had donned her uniform and rattled up starchily to
+take her place at the bedside, and Morton and the doctor went away, the
+doctor to step once more into the lady's room below to see if she was
+feeling quite herself again after her faint.
+
+The nurse leaned over the boy with a glass and spoon. He looked at it
+curiously, unknowingly. It was a situation entirely outside his experience.
+
+"Why don't you take your medicine?" asked the nurse.
+
+The boy looked at the spoon again as it approached his lips and opened them
+to speak.
+
+"Is--"
+
+In went the medicine and the boy nearly choked, but he understood and
+smiled.
+
+"A hospital?" he finished.
+
+The nurse laughed.
+
+"No, it's only a house. They brought you in, you know, when you were hurt
+out on the steps. You saved the little girl's life. Didn't you know it?"
+she said kindly, her heart won by his smile.
+
+A beautiful look rewarded her.
+
+"Is de little kid--in this house?" he asked slowly, wonderingly. It was as
+if he had asked if he were in heaven, there was so much awe in his tone.
+
+"Oh, yes, she's here," answered the nurse lightly. "Perhaps they'll bring
+her in to see you sometime. Her father's very grateful. He thinks it showed
+wonderful courage in you to risk your life for her sake."
+
+But Mikky comprehended nothing about gratitude. He only took in the fact
+that the beautiful baby was in the house and might come there to see him.
+He settled to sleep quite happily with an occasional glad wistful glance
+toward the door, as the long lashes sank on the white cheeks, for the first
+sleep the boy had ever taken in a clean, white, soft bed. The prim nurse,
+softened for once from her precise attention to duties, stood and looked
+upon the lovely face of the sleeping child, wondered what his life had
+been, and how the future would be for him. She half pitied him that the
+ball had not gone nearer to the vital spot and taken him to heaven ere he
+missed the way, so angel-like his face appeared in the soft light of the
+sick room, with the shining gold hair fluffed back upon the pillow now,
+like a halo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+Little Starr Endicott, sleeping in her costly lace-draped crib on her downy
+embroidered pillow, knew nothing of the sin and hate and murder that rolled
+in a great wave on the streets outside, and had almost touched her own
+little life and blotted it out. She knew not that three notable families
+whose names were interwoven in her own, and whose blood flowed in her tiny
+veins represented the great hated class of the Rich, and that those upon
+whom they had climbed to this height looked upon them as an evil to be
+destroyed; nor did she know that she, being the last of the race, and in
+her name representing them all, was hated most of all.
+
+Starr Delevan Endicott! It was graven upon her tiny pins and locket, upon
+the circlet of gold that jewelled her finger, upon her brushes and combs;
+it was broidered upon her dainty garments, and coverlets and cushions, and
+crooned to her by the adoring Scotch nurse who came of a line that knew and
+loved an aristocracy. The pride of the house of Starr, the wealth of the
+house of Delevan, the glory of the house of Endicott, were they not all
+hers, this one beautiful baby who lay in her arms to tend and to love. So
+mused Morton as she hummed:
+
+  "O hush thee my babie, thy sire was a knight,
+  Thy mother a ladie, both gentle and bright--"
+
+And what cared Morton that the mother in this case was neither gentle nor
+bright, but only beautiful and selfish? It did but make the child the
+dearer that she had her love to herself.
+
+And so the little Starr lay sleeping in her crib, and the boy, her
+preserver, from nobody knew where, and of nobody knew what name or fame,
+lay sleeping also. And presently Delevan Endicott himself came to look at
+them both.
+
+He came from the swirl of the sinful turbulent world outside, and from his
+fretting, petted wife's bedside. She had been fretting at him for allowing
+a bank in which he happened to be president to do anything which should
+cause such a disturbance outside her home, when he knew she was so nervous.
+Not one word about the little step that had stood for an instant between
+her baby and eternity. Her husband reminded her gently how near their baby
+had come to death, and how she should rejoice that she was safe, but her
+reply had been a rush of tears, and "Oh, yes, you always think of the baby,
+never of me, your wife!"
+
+With a sigh the man had turned from his fruitless effort to calm her
+troubled mind and gone to his little daughter. He had hoped that his wife
+would go with him, but he saw the hopelessness of that idea.
+
+The little girl lay with one plump white arm thrown over her head, the
+curling baby fingers just touching the rosy cheek, flushed with sleep.
+She looked like a rosebud herself, so beautiful among the rose and lacey
+draperies of her couch. Her dark curls, so fine and soft and wonderful,
+with their hidden purple shadows, and the long dark curling lashes, to
+match the finely pencilled brows, brought out each delicate feature of the
+lovely little face. The father, as he looked down upon her, wondered how it
+could have been in the heart of any creature, no matter how wicked, to put
+out this vivid little life. His little Starr, his one treasure!
+
+The man that had tried to do it, could he have intended it really, or was
+it only a random shot? The testimony of those who saw judged it intention.
+The father's quickened heart-beats told him it was, and he felt that the
+thrust had gone deep. How they had meant to hurt him! How they must have
+hated him to have wished to hurt him so! How they would have hurt his life
+irretrievably if the shot had done its work. If that other little atom of
+human life had not intervened!
+
+Where was the boy who had saved his child? He must go and see him at once.
+The gratitude of a lifetime should be his.
+
+Morton divined his thought, as he stepped from the sacred crib softly after
+bending low to sweep his lips over the rosy velvet of little Starr's cheek.
+With silent tread she followed her master to the door:
+
+"The poor wee b'y's in the far room yon," she said in a soft whisper, and
+her tone implied that his duty lay next in that direction. The banker had
+often noticed this gentle suggestion in the nurse's voice, it minded him
+of something in his childhood and he invariably obeyed it. He might have
+resented it if it had been less humble, less trustfully certain that
+of course that was the thing that he meant to do next. He followed her
+direction now without a word.
+
+The boy had just fallen asleep when he entered, and lay as sweetly
+beautiful as the little vivid beauty he had left in the other room. The man
+of the world paused and instinctively exclaimed in wonder. He had been told
+that it was a little gamin who had saved his daughter from the assassin's
+bullet, but the features of this child were as delicately chiseled, his
+form as finely modeled, his hair as soft and fine as any scion of a noble
+house might boast. He, like the nurse, had the feeling that a young god lay
+before him. It was so that Mikky always had impressed a stranger even when
+his face was dirty and his feet were bare.
+
+The man stood with bowed head and looked upon the boy to whom he felt he
+owed a debt which he could never repay.
+
+He recognized the child as a representative of that great unwashed throng
+of humanity who were his natural enemies, because by their oppression and
+by stepping upon their rights when it suited his convenience, he had risen
+to where he now stood, and was able to maintain his position. He had no
+special feeling for them, any of them, more than if they had been a pack of
+wolves whose fangs he must keep clear of, and whose hides he must get as
+soon as convenient; but this boy was different! This spirit-child with the
+form of Apollo, the beauty of Adonis, and the courage of a hero! Could he
+have come from the hotbeds of sin and corruption? It could not be! Sure
+there must be some mistake. He must be of good birth. Enquiry must be made.
+Had anyone asked the child's name and where he lived?
+
+Then, as if in answer to his thought, the dark blue eyes suddenly opened.
+He found them looking at him, and started as he realized it, as if a
+picture on which he gazed had suddenly turned out to be alive. And yet,
+for the instant, he could not summon words, but stood meeting that steady
+searching gaze of the child, penetrating, questioning, as if the eyes would
+see and understand the very foundation principles on which the man's life
+rested. The man felt it, and had the sensation of hastily looking at his
+own motives in the light of this child's look. Would his life bear that
+burning appealing glance?
+
+Then, unexpectedly the child's face lit up with his wonderful smile. He had
+decided to trust the man.
+
+Never before in all his proud and varied experience had Delevan Endicott
+encountered a challenge like that. It beat through him like a mighty army
+and took his heart by storm, it flashed into his eyes and dazzled him. It
+was the challenge of childhood to the fatherhood of the man. With a strange
+new impulse the man accepted it, and struggling to find words, could only
+answer with a smile.
+
+A good deal passed between them before any words were spoken at all, a good
+deal that the boy never forgot, and that the man liked to turn back to in
+his moments of self-reproach, for somehow that boy's eyes called forth the
+best that was in him, and made him ashamed of other things.
+
+"Boy, who is your father?" at last asked the man huskily. He almost dreaded
+to find another father owning a noble boy like this--and such a father as
+he would be if it were true that he was only a street gamin.
+
+The boy still smiled, but a wistfulness came into his eyes. He slowly shook
+his head.
+
+"Dead, is he?" asked the man more as if thinking aloud. But the boy shook
+his head again.
+
+"No, no father," he answered simply.
+
+"Oh," said the man, and a lump gathered in his throat. "Your mother?"
+
+"No mother, never!" came the solemn answer. It seemed that he scarcely felt
+that either of these were deep lacks in his assets. Very likely fathers and
+mothers were not on the average desirable kindred in the neighborhood from
+which he came. The man reflected and tried again.
+
+"Who are your folks? They'll be worried about you. We ought to send them
+word you're doing well?"
+
+The boy looked amazed, then a laugh rippled out.
+
+"No folks," he gurgled, "on'y jest de kids."
+
+"Your brothers and sisters?" asked Endicott puzzled.
+
+"None o' dem," said Mikky. "Buck an' me're pards. We fights fer de other
+kids."
+
+"Don't you know it's wrong to fight?"
+
+Mikky stared.
+
+Endicott tried to think of something to add to his little moral homily, but
+somehow could not.
+
+"It's very wrong to fight," he reiterated lamely.
+
+The boy's cherub mouth settled into firm lines.
+
+"It's wronger not to, when de little kids is gettin' hurt, an' de big
+fellers what ought ter work is stole away they bread, an' they's hungry."
+
+It was an entirely new proposition. It was the challenge of the poor
+against the rich, of the weak against the strong, and from the lips of a
+mere babe. The man wondered and answered not.
+
+"I'd fight fer your little kid!" declared the young logician. He seemed to
+know by instinct that this was the father of his baby.
+
+Ah, now he had touched the responsive chord. The father's face lit up. He
+understood. Yes, it was right to fight for his baby girl, his little Starr,
+his one treasure, and this boy had done it, given his life freely. Was that
+like fighting for those other unloved, uncared-for, hungry darlings? Were
+they then dear children, too, of somebody, of God, if nobody else? The
+boy's eyes were telling him plainly in one long deep look, that all the
+world of little children at least was kin, and the grateful heart of the
+father felt that in mere decency of gratitude he must acknowledge so much.
+Poor little hungry babies. What if his darling were hungry! A sudden
+longing seized his soul to give them bread at once to eat. But at least he
+would shower his gratitude upon this one stray defender of their rights.
+
+He struggled to find words to let the child know of this feeling but only
+the tears gathering quickly in his eyes spoke for him.
+
+"Yes, yes, my boy! You did fight for my little girl. I know, I'll never
+forget it of you as long as I live. You saved her life, and that's worth
+everything to me. Everything, do you understand?"
+
+At last the words rushed forth, but his voice was husky, and those who knew
+him would have declared him more moved than they had ever seen him.
+
+The boy understood. A slender brown hand stole out from the white coverlet
+and touched his. Its outline, long and supple and graceful, spoke of
+patrician origin. It was hard for the man of wealth and pride to realize
+that it was the hand of the child of the common people, the people who were
+his enemies.
+
+"Is there anything you would like to have done for you, boy?" he asked at
+last because the depth of emotion was more than he could bear.
+
+The boy looked troubled.
+
+"I was thinkin', ef Buck an' them could see me, they'd know 'twas all
+right. I'd like 'em fine to know how 'tis in here."
+
+"You want me to bring them up to see you?"
+
+Mikky nodded.
+
+"Where can I find them, do you think?"
+
+"Buck, he won't go fur, till he knows what's comed o' me," said the boy
+with shining confidence in his friend. "He'd know I'd do that fur him."
+
+Then it seemed there was such a thing as honor and loyalty among the lower
+ranks of men--at least among the boys. The man of the world was learning a
+great many things. Meekly he descended the two flights of stairs and went
+out to his own front doorsteps.
+
+There were no crowds any more. The police were still on duty, but curious
+passersby dared not linger long. The workmen had finished the windows and
+gone. The man felt little hope of finding the boys, but somehow he had a
+strange desire to do so. He wanted to see that face light up once more.
+Also, he had a curious desire to see these youngsters from the street who
+could provoke such loving anxiety from the hero upstairs.
+
+Mikky was right, Buck would not go far away until he knew how it was with
+his comrade. He had indeed moved off at the officer's word when the doctor
+promised to bring him word later, but in his heart he did not intend to let
+a soul pass in or out of that house all day that he did not see, and so he
+set his young pickets here and there about the block, each with his bunch
+of papers, and arranged a judicious change occasionally, to avoid trouble
+with the officers.
+
+Buck was standing across the street on the corner by the church steps,
+making a lively show of business now and then and keeping one eye on the
+house that had swallowed up his partner. He was not slow to perceive that
+he was being summoned by a man upon the steps, and ran eagerly up with his
+papers, expecting to receive his coin, and maybe a glimpse inside the door.
+
+"All about der shootin' of der bank millionaire's baby!" he yelled in his
+most finished voice of trade, and the father, thinking of what might have
+been, felt a pang of horror at the careless words from the gruff little
+voice.
+
+"Do you know a boy named Buck?" he questioned as he deliberately paid for
+the paper that was held up to him, and searched the unpromising little face
+before him. Then marvelled at the sullen, sly change upon the dirty face.
+
+The black brows drew down forbodingly, the dark eyes reminded Mm of a caged
+lion ready to spring if an opportunity offered. The child had become a man
+with a criminal's face. There was something frightful about the defiant
+look with which the boy drew himself up.
+
+"What if I does?"
+
+"Only that there's a boy in here," motioning toward the door, "would like
+very much to see him for a few minutes. If you know where he is, I wish
+you'd tell him."
+
+Then there came a change more marvelous than before. It was as if the
+divine in the soul had suddenly been revealed through a rift in the sinful
+humanity. The whole defiant face became eager, the black eyes danced with
+question, the brows settled into straight pleasant lines, and the mouth
+sweetened as with pleasant thoughts.
+
+"Is't Mikky?" He asked in earnest voice. "Kin we get in? I'll call de kids.
+He'll want 'em. He allus wants der kids." He placed his fingers in his
+mouth, stretching it into a curious shape, and there issued forth a shriek
+that might have come from the mouth of an exulting fiend, so long and
+shrill and sharp it was. The man on the steps, his nerves already wrought
+to the snapping point, started angrily. Then suddenly around the corner at
+a swift trot emerged three ragged youngsters who came at their leader's
+command swiftly and eagerly.
+
+"Mikky wants us!" explained Buck. "Now youse foller me, 'n don't you say
+nothin' less I tell you."
+
+They fell in line, behind the bank president, and followed awed within
+the portal that unlocked a palace more wonderful than Aladdin's to their
+astonished gaze.
+
+Up the stairs they slunk, single file, the bare feet and the illy-shod
+alike going silently and sleuth-like over the polished stairs. They skulked
+past open doors with frightened defiant glances, the defiance of the very
+poor for the very rich, the defiance that is born and bred in the soul from
+a face to face existence with hunger and cold and need of every kind. They
+were defiant but they took it all in, and for many a day gave details
+highly embellished of the palace where Mikky lay. It seemed to them that
+heaven itself could show no grander sights.
+
+In a stricken row against the wall, with sudden consciousness of their own
+delinquencies of attire, ragged caps in hands, grimy hands behind them,
+they stood and gazed upon their fallen hero-comrade.
+
+Clean, they had never perhaps seen his face before. The white robe that was
+upon him seemed a robe of unearthly whiteness. It dazzled their gaze. The
+shining of his newly-washed hair was a glory crown upon his head. They saw
+him gathered into another world than any they knew. It could have seemed no
+worse to them if the far heaven above the narrow city streets had opened
+its grim clouds and received their comrade from their sight. They were
+appalled. How could he ever be theirs again? How could it all have happened
+in the few short hours since Mikky flashed past them and fell a martyr to
+his kindly heart and saved the wicked rich man his child? The brows of Buck
+drew together in his densest frown. He felt that Mikky, their Mikky was
+having some terrible change come upon him.
+
+Then Mikky turned and smiled upon them all, and in his dear familiar voice
+shouted, "Say, kids, ain't this grand? Say, I jes' wish you was all in it!
+Ef you, Buck, an' the kids was here in this yer grand bed I'd be havin' the
+time o' me life!"
+
+That turned the tide. Buck swallowed hard and smiled his darker smile,
+and the rest grinned sheepishly Grandeur and riches had not spoiled their
+prince. He was theirs still and he had wanted them. He had sent for them.
+They gained courage to look around on the spotlessly clean room, on the
+nurse in her crackling dignity; on the dish of oranges which she promptly
+handed to them and of which each in awe partook a golden sphere; on the
+handful of bright flowers that Morton had brought but a few minutes before
+and placed on a little stand by the bed; on the pictures that hung upon the
+walls, the like of which they had never seen, before, and then back to the
+white white bed that held their companion. They could not get used to the
+whiteness and the cleanness of his clean, clean face and hands, and bright
+gold hair. It burned like a flame against the pillow, and Mikky's blue eyes
+seemed darker and deeper than ever before. To Buck they had given their
+obedient following, and looked to him for protection, but after all he was
+one like themselves, only a little more fearless. To Mikky they all gave a
+kind of far-seeing adoration. He was fearless and brave like Buck, but he
+was something more. In their superstitious fear and ignorance he seemed to
+them almost supernatural.
+
+They skulked, silently down the stairs like frightened rabbits when the
+interview was over, each clutching his precious orange, and not until the
+great doors had closed upon them, did they utter a word. They had said very
+little. Mikky had done all the talking.
+
+When they had filed down the street behind their leader, and rounded the
+corner out of sight of the house, Buck gathered them into a little knot and
+said solemnly: "Kids. I bet cher Mik don't be comin' out o' this no more.
+Didn't you take notice how he looked jes' like the angel top o' the
+monnemunt down to the cemtary?"
+
+The little group took on a solemnity that was deep and real.
+
+"Annyhow, he wanted us!" spoke up a curly-headed boy with old eyes and a
+thin face. He was one whom Mikky had been won't to defend. He bore a hump
+upon his ragged back.
+
+"Aw! he's all right fer us, is Mik," said Buck, "but he's different nor us.
+Old Aunt Sal she said one day he were named fer a 'n'angel, an' like as not
+he'll go back where he b'longs some day, but he won't never fergit us.
+He ain't like rich folks what don't care. He's our pard allus. Come on,
+fellers."
+
+Down the back alley went the solemn little procession, single file, till
+they reached the rear of the Endicott house, where they stood silent as
+before a shrine, till at a signal from their leader, each grimy right hand
+was raised, and gravely each ragged cap was taken off and held high in the
+air toward the upper window, where they knew their hero-comrade lay. Then
+they turned and marched silently away.
+
+They were all in place before the door whenever the doctor came thereafter,
+and always went around by the way of the alley afterward for their
+ceremonial good night, sometimes standing solemnly beneath the cold stars
+while the shrill wind blew through their thin garments, but always as long
+as the doctor brought them word, or as long as the light burned in the
+upper window, they felt their comrade had not gone yet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Heaven opened for Mikky on the day when Morton, with the doctor's
+permission, brought Baby Starr to see him.
+
+The baby, in her nurse's arms, gazed down upon her rescuer with the
+unprejudiced eyes of childhood. Mikky's smile flashed upon her and
+forthwith she answered with a joyous laugh of glee. The beautiful boy
+pleased her ladyship. She reached out her roseleaf hands to greet him.
+
+The nurse held her down to the bed:
+
+"Kiss the wee b'y, that's a good baby. Kiss the wee b'y. He took care of
+baby and saved her life when the bad man tried to hurt her. Kiss the wee
+b'y and say 'I thank you,'" commanded Morton.
+
+The saving of her life meant nothing to little Starr, but she obediently
+murmured 'I'ee tank oo!' as the nurse had drilled her to do before she
+brought her, and then laid her moist pink lips on cheeks, forehead, eyes
+and mouth in turn, and Mikky, in ecstasy, lay trembling with the pleasure
+of it. No one had ever kissed him before. Kissing was not in vogue in the
+street where he existed.
+
+Thereafter, every day until he was convalescent, Starr came to visit him.
+
+By degrees he grew accustomed to her gay presence enough to talk with her
+freely as child with child. Her words were few and her tongue as yet quite
+unacquainted with the language of this world; but perhaps that was all the
+better, for their conversations were more of the spirit than of the tongue,
+Mikky's language, of circumstance, being quite unlike that of Madison
+Avenue.
+
+Starr brought her wonderful electric toys and dolls, and Mikky looked at
+them with wonder, yet always with a kind of rare indifference, because the
+child herself was to him the wonder of all wonders, an angel spirit stooped
+to earth. And every day, when the nurse carried her small charge away after
+her frolic with the boy, she would always lift her up to the bed and say:
+
+"Now kiss the wee b'y, Baby Starr, and thank him again fer savin' yer
+life."
+
+And Starr would lay her soft sweet mouth on hie as tenderly and gravely as
+if she understood the full import of her obligation. At such times Mikky
+would watch her bright face as it came close to his, and when her lips
+touched his he would close his eyes as if to shut out all things else from
+this sacred ceremony. After Starr and Morton were gone the nurse was wont
+to look furtively toward the bed and note the still, lovely face of the boy
+whose eyes were closed as if to hold the vision and memory the longer. At
+such times her heart would draw her strangely from her wonted formality and
+she would touch the boy with a tenderness that was not natural to her.
+
+There were other times when Mr. Endicott would come and talk briefly with
+the boy, just to see his eyes light and his face glow with that wonderful
+smile, and to think what it would be if the boy were his own. Always Mikky
+enjoyed these little talks, and when his visitor was gone he would think
+with satisfaction that this was just the right kind of a father for his
+little lovely Starr. He was glad the Baby Starr had a father. He had often
+wondered what it would be like to have a father, and now he thought he saw
+what the height of desire in a father might be. Not that he felt a great
+need for himself in the way of fathers. He had taken care of himself since
+he could remember and felt quite grown up and fathers usually drank; but a
+baby like that needed a father, and he liked Starr's father.
+
+But the dearest thing now in life for him was little Starr's kisses.
+
+To the father, drawn first by gratitude to the boy who had saved his
+child's life, and afterwards by the boy's own irresistible smile, these
+frequent visits had become a pleasure. There had been a little boy before
+Starr came to their home, but he had only lived a few weeks. The memory of
+that golden, fuzzy head, the little appealing fingers, the great blue eyes
+of his son still lingered bitterly in the father's heart. When he first
+looked upon this waif the fancy seized him that, perhaps his own boy would
+have been like this had he lived, and a strange and unexpected tenderness
+entered his heart for Mikky. He kept going to the little invalid's room
+night after night, pleasing himself with the thought that the boy was his
+own.
+
+So strong a hold did this fancy take upon the man's heart that he actually
+began to consider the feasibility of adopting the child and bringing him
+up as his own--this, after he had by the aid of detectives, thoroughly
+searched out all that was known of him and found that no one owned Mikky
+nor seemed to care what became of him except Buck and his small following.
+And all the time the child, well fed, well cared for, happier than he had
+ever dreamed of being in all his little hard life, rapidly convalesced.
+
+Endicott came home one afternoon to find Mikky down in the reception room
+dressed in black velvet and rare old lace, with his glorious sheaf of
+golden hair which had grown during his illness tortured into ringlets, and
+an adoring group of ladies gathered about him, as he stood with troubled,
+almost haughty mien, and gravely regarded their maudlin sentimentalities.
+
+Mrs. Endicott had paid no attention to the boy heretofore, and her sudden
+interest in him came from a chance view of him as he sat up in a big chair
+for the first time, playing a game with little Starr. His big eyes and
+beautiful hair attracted her at once, and she lost no time in dressing him
+up like a doll and making him a show at one of her receptions.
+
+When her husband remonstrated with her, declaring that such treatment would
+ruin the spirit of any real boy, and spoil him for life, she shrugged her
+shoulders indifferently, and answered:
+
+"Well, what if it does? He's nothing but a foundling. He ought to be glad
+we are willing to dress him up prettily and play with him for a while."
+
+"And what would you do with him after you were done using him for a toy?
+Cast him aside?"
+
+"Well, why not?" with another shrug of her handsome shoulders. "Or, perhaps
+we might teach him to be a butler or footman if you want to be benevolent.
+He would be charming in a dark blue uniform!"
+
+The woman raised her delicate eyebrows, humming a light tune, and her
+husband turned from her in despair. Was it nothing at all to her that this
+child had saved the life of her baby?
+
+That settled the question of adoption. His wife would never be the one
+to bring up the boy into anything like manhood. It was different with a
+girl--she must of necessity be frivolous, he supposed.
+
+The next morning an old college friend came into his office, a plain
+man with a pleasant face, who had not gone from college days to a bank
+presidency. He was only a plain teacher in a little struggling college in
+Florida, and he came soliciting aid for the college.
+
+Endicott turned from puzzling over the question of Mikky, to greet his old
+friend whom he had not seen for twenty years. He was glad to see him. He
+had always liked him. He looked him over critically, however, with his
+successful-business-man-of-New-York point of view. He noticed the plain
+cheap business suit, worn shiny in places, the shoes well polished but
+beginning to break at the side, the plentiful sprinkling of gray hairs, and
+then hie eyes travelled to the kind, worn face of his friend. In spite of
+himself he could not but feel that the man was happier than himself.
+
+He asked many questions, and found a keen pleasure in hearing all about the
+little family of the other, and their happy united efforts to laugh off
+poverty and have a good time anyway. Then the visitor told of the college,
+its struggles, its great needs and small funds, how its orange crop, which
+was a large part of its regular income, had failed that year on account of
+the frost, and they were in actual need of funds to carry on the work of
+the immediate school year. Endicott found his heart touched, though he was
+not as a rule a large giver to anything.
+
+"I'd be glad to help you Harkness," he said at last, "but I've got a
+private benevolence on my hands just now that is going to take a good deal
+of money, I'm afraid. You see we've narrowly escaped a tragedy at our
+house--" and he launched into the story of the shooting, and his own
+indebtedness to Mikky.
+
+"I see," said the Professor, "you feel that you owe it to that lad to put
+him in the way of a better life, seeing that he freely gave his life for
+your child's."
+
+"Exactly!" said Endicott, "and I'd like to adopt him and bring him up as my
+own, but it doesn't seem feasible. I don't think my wife would feel just
+as I do about it, and I'm not sure I'd be doing the best after all for the
+boy. To be taken from one extreme to another might ruin him."
+
+"Well, Endicott, why don't you combine your debt to the child with
+benevolence and send him down to us for a few years to educate."
+
+Endicott sat up interestedly.
+
+"Could I do that; Would they take so young a child? He can't be over
+seven."
+
+"Yes, we would take him, I think. He'd be well cared for; and his tuition
+in the prep department would help the institution along. Every little
+helps, you know."
+
+Endicott suddenly saw before him the solution of his difficulties. He
+entered eagerly into the matter, talking over rates, plans and so on. An
+hour later it was all settled. Mikky was to take a full course with his
+expenses all prepaid, and a goodly sum placed in the bank for his clothing
+and spending money. He was to have the best room the school afforded, at
+the highest price, and was to take music and art and everything else
+that was offered, for Endicott meant to do the handsome thing by the
+institution. The failure of the bank of which he was president had in no
+wise affected his own private fortune.
+
+"If the boy doesn't seem to develop an interest in some of these branches,
+put some deserving one in his place, and put him at something else," he
+said. "I want him to have his try at everything, develop the best that is
+in him. So we'll pay for everything you've got there, and that will
+help out some other poor boy perhaps, for, of course one boy can't do
+everything. I'll arrange it with my lawyer that the payments shall be made
+regularly for the next twelve years, so that if anything happens to me, or
+if this boy runs away or doesn't turn out worthy, you will keep on getting
+the money just the same, and some one else can come in on it."
+
+Professor Harkness went away from the office with a smile on his face and
+in his pocket three letters of introduction to wealthy benevolent business
+men of New York. Mikky was to go South with him the middle of the next
+week.
+
+Endicott went home that afternoon with relief of mind, but he found in his
+heart a most surprising reluctance to part with the beautiful boy.
+
+When the banker told Mikky that he was going to send him to "college," and
+explained to him that an education would enable him to become a good man
+and perhaps a great one, the boy's face was very grave. Mikky had never
+felt the need of an education, and the thought of going away from New York
+gave him a sensation as if the earth were tottering under his feet. He
+shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"Kin I take Buck an' de kids?" he asked after a thoughtful pause, and with
+a lifting of the cloud in his eyes.
+
+"No," said Endicott. "It costs a good deal to go away to school, and there
+wouldn't be anyone to send them."
+
+Mikky's eyes grew wide with something like indignation, and he shook his
+head.
+
+"Nen I couldn't go," he said decidedly. "I couldn't take nothin' great like
+that and not give de kids any. We'll stick together. I'll stay wid de kids.
+They needs me."
+
+"But Mikky--" the man looked into the large determined eyes and settled
+down for combat--"you don't understand, boy. It would be impossible for
+them to go. I couldn't send them all, but I _can_ send you, and I'm going
+to, because you risked your life to save little Starr."
+
+"That wasn't nothin' t'all!" declared Mikky with fine scorn.
+
+"It was everything to me," said the man, "and I want to do this for you.
+And boy, it's your duty to take this. It's everybody's duty to take the
+opportunities for advancement that come to them."
+
+Mikky looked at him thoughtfully. He did not understand the large words,
+and duty meant to him a fine sense of loyalty to those who had been loyal
+to him.
+
+"I got to stay wid de kids," he said. "Dey needs me."
+
+With an exasperated feeling that it was useless to argue against this
+calmly stated fact, Endicott began again gently:
+
+"But Mikky, you can help them a lot more by going to college than by
+staying at home."
+
+The boy's eyes looked unconvinced but he waited for reasons.
+
+"If you get to be an educated man you will be able to earn money and help
+them. You can lift them up to better things; build good houses for them to
+live in; give them work to do that will pay good wages, and help them to be
+good men."
+
+"Are you educated?"
+
+Thinking he was making progress Endicott nodded eagerly.
+
+"Is that wot you does fer folks?" The bright eyes searched his face
+eagerly, keenly, doubtfully.
+
+The color flooded the bank-president's cheeks and forehead uncomfortably.
+
+"Well,--I might--" he answered. "Yes, I might do a great deal for people, I
+suppose. I don't know as I do much, but I could if I had been interested in
+them."
+
+He paused. He realized that the argument was weakened. Mikky studied his
+face.
+
+"But dey needs me now, de kids does," he said gravely, "Jimmie, he don't
+have no supper most nights less'n I share; and Bobs is so little he can't
+fight dem alley kids; n' sometimes I gets a flower off'n the florist's back
+door fer little sick Jane. Her's got a crutch, and can't walk much anyhow;
+and cold nights me an' Buck we sleeps close. We got a box hid away where we
+sleeps close an' keeps warm."
+
+The moisture gathered in the eyes of the banker as he listened to the
+innocent story. It touched his heart as nothing ever had before. He
+resolved that after this his education and wealth should at least help
+these little slum friends of Mikky to an occasional meal, or a flower, or a
+warm bed.
+
+"Suppose you get Buck to take your place with the kids while you go to
+school and get an education and learn how to help them better."
+
+Mikky's golden head negatived this slowly.
+
+"Buck, he's got all he kin do to git grub fer hisse'f an" his sister Jane.
+His father is bad, and kicks Jane, and don't get her nothin' to eat. Buck
+he has to see after Janie."
+
+"How would it be for you to pay Buck something so that he could take your
+place? I will give you some money that you may do as you like with, and you
+can pay Buck as much as you think he needs every week. You can send it to
+him in a letter."
+
+"Would it be as much as a quarter?" Mikky held his breath in wonder and
+suspense.
+
+"Two quarters if you like."
+
+"Oh! could I do that?" The boy's face fairly shone, and he came and threw
+his arms about Endicott's neck and laid his face against his. The man
+clasped him close and would fain have kept him there, for his well ordered
+heart was deeply stirred.
+
+Thus it was arranged.
+
+Buck was invited to an interview, but when the silver half dollar was
+laid in his grimy palm, and he was made to understand that others were to
+follow, and that he was to step up into Mikky's place in the community of
+the children while that luminary went to "college" to be educated, his face
+wore a heavy frown. He held out the silver sphere as if it burned him.
+What! Take money in exchange for Mikky's bright presence? Never!
+
+It took a great deal of explanation to convince Buck that anything could be
+better "fer de kids" than Mikky, their own Mikky, now and forever. He was
+quick, however, to see where the good lay for Mikky, and after a few plain
+statements from Mr. Endicott there was no further demur on the part of the
+boy. Buck was willing to give up Mikky for Mikky's good but not for his
+own. But it was a terrible sacrifice. The hard little face knotted itself
+into a fierce expression when he came to say good-bye. The long scrawny
+throat worked convulsively, the hands gripped each other savagely. It
+was like handing Mikky over to another world than theirs, and though he
+confidently promised to return to them so soon as the college should have
+completed the mysterious process of education, and to live with them as of
+yore, sleeping in Buck's box alongside, and taking care of the others when
+the big alley kids grew troublesome, somehow an instinct taught them that
+he would never return again. They had had him, and they would never
+forget him, but he would grow into a being far above them. They looked
+vindictively at the great rich man who had perpetrated this evil device of
+a college life for their comrade. It was the old story of the helpless poor
+against the powerful rich. Even heart-beats counted not against such power.
+Mikky must go.
+
+They went to the great station on the morning when Mikky was to depart
+and stood shivering and forlorn until the train was called. They listened
+sullenly while Professor Harkness told them that if they wished to be fit
+to associate with their friend when he came out of college they must begin
+at once to improve all their opportunities. First of all they must go to
+school, and study hard, and then their friend in college would be proud to
+call them friends. They did not think it worth while to tell the kindly but
+ignorant professor that they had no time for school, and no clothes to wear
+if they had the time or the inclination to go. Schools were everywhere,
+free, of course, but it did not touch them. They lived in dark places and
+casual crannies, like weeds or vermin. No one cared whether they went to
+school. No one suggested it. They would have as soon thought of entering
+a great mansion and insisting on their right to live there as to present
+themselves at school. Why, they had to hustle for a mere existence. They
+were the water rats, the bad boys, the embryo criminals for the next
+generation. The problem, with any who thought of them was how to get rid of
+them. But of course this man from another world did not understand. They
+merely looked at him dully and wished he would walk away and leave Mikky to
+them while he stayed. His presence made it seem as if their companion were
+already gone from them.
+
+It was hard, too, to see Mikky dressed like the fine boys on Fifth Avenue,
+handsome trousers and coat, and a great thick overcoat, a hat on his
+shining crown of hair that had always been guiltless of cap, thick
+stockings and shining shoes on his feet that had always been bare and
+soiled with the grime of the streets--gloves on his hands. This was a new
+Mikky. "The kids" did not know him. In spite of their best efforts they
+could not be natural. Great lumps arose in their throats, lumps that never
+dared arise for hunger or cold or curses at home.
+
+They stood helpless before their own consciousness, and Mikky, divining the
+trouble with that exquisite keenness of a spirit sent from heaven to make
+earth brighter, conceived the bright idea of giving each of his comrades
+some article of his apparel as a remembrance. Mr. Endicott came upon
+the scene just in time to keep Mikky from taking off his overcoat and
+enveloping Buck in its elegant folds. He was eagerly telling them that Bobs
+should have his undercoat, Jimmie his hat; they must take his gloves to
+Jane, and there was nothing left for Sam but his stockings and shoes, but
+he gave them all willingly. He seemed to see no reason why he could not
+travel hatless and coatless, bare of foot and hand, for had he not gone
+that way through all the years of his existence? It was a small thing to
+do, for his friends whom he was leaving for a long time.
+
+The bright face clouded when he was told he could not give these things
+away, that it would not be fair to the kind professor to ask him to carry
+with him a boy not properly dressed. But he smiled again trustfully when
+Endicott promised to take the whole group to a clothing house and fit them
+out.
+
+They bade Mikky good-bye, pressing their grimy noses against the bars of
+the station gate to watch their friend disappear from their bare little
+lives.
+
+Endicott himself felt like crying as he came back from seeing the boy
+aboard the train. Somehow it went hard for him to feel, he should not meet
+the bright smile that night when he went home.
+
+But it was not the way of "the kids" to cry when tragedy fell among them.
+They did not cry now--when he came back to them they regarded the banker
+with lowering brows as the originator of their bereavement. They had no
+faith in the promised clothing.
+
+"Aw, what's he givin' us!" Buck had breathed under his breath. But to do
+Buck credit he had not wanted to take Mikky's coat from him. When their
+comrade went from them into another walk in life he must go proudly
+apparelled.
+
+Endicott led the huddled group away from the station, to a clothing house,
+and amused himself by fitting them out. The garments were not of as fine
+material, nor elegant a cut as those he had pleased himself by purchasing
+for Mikky's outfit, but they were warm and strong and wonderful to their
+eyes, and one by one the grimy urchins went into a little dressing room,
+presently emerging with awe upon their faces to stand before a tall mirror
+surveying themselves.
+
+Endicott presently bade the little company farewell and with a conscience
+at ease with himself and all mankind left them.
+
+They issued from the clothing house with scared expressions and walked
+solemnly a few blocks. Then Buck called them to a halt before a large plate
+glass show-window.
+
+"Take a good look at yersel's, kids," he ordered, "an' we'll go up to the
+Park an' shine around, an' see how ther swells feels, then we'll go down to
+Sheeny's an' sell 'em."
+
+"Sell 'em! Can't we keep 'em?" pitifully demanded Bobs who had never felt
+warm in winter in all his small life before.
+
+"You wouldn't hev 'em long," sneered Buck. "That father o' yourn would hey
+'em pawned 'afore night; You better enjoy 'em a while, an' then git the
+money. It's safer!"
+
+The children with wisdom born of their unhappy circumstances recognized
+this truth. They surveyed themselves gravely in their fleeting grandeur and
+then turned to walk up to the aristocratic part of town, a curious little
+procession. They finished by rounding the Madison Avenue block, marched up
+the alley, and gave the salute with new hats toward the window where their
+Prince and Leader used to be. He was no longer there, but his memory was
+about them, and the ceremony did their bursting little hearts good. Their
+love for Mikky was the noblest thing that had so far entered their lives.
+
+Jimmie suggested that they must let Jane see them before they disposed
+forever of their elegant garments, so Bobs, minus coat, hat, stockings
+and shoes was sent to bid her to a secluded retreat at the far end of the
+alley. Bobs hurried back ahead of her little tapping crutch to don his fine
+attire once more before she arrived.
+
+Little Jane, sallow of face, unkempt of hair, tattered of clothing and
+shivering in the cold twilight stood and watched the procession of pride as
+it passed and repassed before her delighted eyes. The festivity might have
+been prolonged but that the maudlin voice of Bobs' father reeling into the
+alley struck terror to their hearts, and with small ceremony they scuttled
+away to the pawnshop, leaving little Jane to hobble back alone to her
+cellar and wonder how it would feel to wear a warm coat like one of those.
+
+"Gee!" said Jimmie as they paused with one consent before the shop door,
+and looked reluctantly down at their brief glory, "Gee! I wisht we could
+keep jest one coat fer little Jane!"
+
+"Couldn't we hide it some'ere's?" asked Sam, and they all looked at Buck.
+
+Buck, deeply touched for his sister's sake, nodded.
+
+"Keep Jim's," he said huskily, "it'll do her best."
+
+Then the little procession filed proudly in and gave up their garments
+to the human parasite who lived on the souls of other men, and came away
+bearing the one coat they had saved for Janie, each treasuring a pitiful
+bit of money which seemed a fortune in their eyes.
+
+Little Jane received her gift with true spirit when it was presented,
+skilfully hid it from her inhuman father, and declared that each boy should
+have a turn at wearing the coat every Sunday at some safe hour, whereat
+deep satisfaction, reigned among them. Their grandeur was not all departed
+after all.
+
+Meantime, Mikky, in his luxurious berth in a sleeper, smiled drowsily to
+think of the fine new clothes that his friends must be wearing, and then
+fell asleep to dream of little Starr's kisses on his closed eyelids.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Into a new world came Mikky, a world of blue skies, song birds, and high,
+tall pines with waving moss and dreamy atmosphere; a world of plenty to eat
+and wear, and light and joy and ease.
+
+Yet it was a most bewildering world to the boy, and for the first week he
+stood off and looked at it questioningly, suspiciously. True, there were
+no dark cellars or freezing streets, no drunken fathers or frightened
+children, or blows, or hunger or privation; but this education he had come
+to seek that he might go back to his own world and better it, was not a
+garment one put on and exercised in so many times a day; it was not a
+cup from which one drank, nor an atmosphere that one absorbed. It was a
+strange, imperceptible thing got at in some mysterious way by a series of
+vague struggles followed by sudden and almost alarming perceptions. For a
+time it seemed to the boy, keen though his mind, and quick, that knowledge
+was a thing only granted to the few, and his was a mind that would never
+grasp it. How, for instance, did one know how to make just the right
+figures under a line when one added a long perplexity of numbers? Mikky the
+newsboy could tell like a flash how much change he needed to return to the
+fat gentleman who occasionally gave him a five-dollar bill to change on
+Broadway; but Mikky the scholar, though he knew figures, and was able to
+study out with labor easy words in his papers, had never heard of adding up
+figures in the way they did here, long rows of them on the blackboard. It
+became necessary that this boy should have some private instruction before
+he would be able to enter classes. Professor Harkness himself undertook the
+task, and gradually revealed to the child's neglected understanding some of
+the simple rudiments that would make his further progress possible. The sum
+that was paid for his tuition made it quite necessary that the boy advance
+reasonably, for his benefactor had made it understood that he might some
+day visit the institution and see how he was getting on. So great pains
+were taken to enlighten Mikky's darkness.
+
+There was another thing that the boy could not understand, and that was the
+discipline that ruled everywhere. He had always been a law unto himself,
+his only care being to keep out of the way of those who would interfere
+with this. Now he must rise with a bell, stay in his room until another
+bell, eat at a bell, go to the hard bench in the schoolroom with another
+bell, and even play ball when the recreation bell rang. It was hard on an
+independent spirit to get used to all this, and while he had no mind to be
+disorderly, he often broke forth into direct disobedience of the law from
+sheer misunderstanding of the whole régime.
+
+The boys' dormitory was presided over by a woman who, while thorough in
+all housekeeping arrangements, had certainly mistaken her calling as a
+substitute mother for boys. She kept their clothes in order, saw to it that
+their rooms were aired, their stockings darned and their lights out at
+exactly half-past nine, but the grimness of her countenance forbade any
+familiarity, and she never thought of gaining the confidence of her rough,
+but affectionate charges. There was no tenderness in her, and Mikky never
+felt like smiling in her presence. He came and went with a sort of high,
+unconscious superiority that almost irritated the woman, because she
+was not great enough to see the unusual spirit of the child; and as a
+consequence she did not win his heart.
+
+But he did not miss the lack of motherliness in her, for he had never known
+a mother and was not expecting it.
+
+The professors he grew to like, some more, some less, always admiring most
+those who seemed to him to deal in a fair and righteous manner with their
+classes--fairness being judged by the code in use among "the kids" in New
+York. But that was before he grew to know the president. After that his
+code changed.
+
+His first interview with that dignitary was on an afternoon when he had
+been overheard by the matron to use vile language among the boys at the
+noon hour. She hauled him up with her most severe manner, and gave him to
+understand that he must answer to the president for his conduct.
+
+As Mikky had no conception of his offence he went serenely to his fate
+walking affably beside her, only wishing she would not look so sour. As
+they crossed the campus to the president's house a blue jay flew overhead,
+and a mocking bird trilled in a live oak near-by. The boy's face lighted
+with joy and he laughed out gleefully, but the matron only looked the more
+severe, for she thought him a hardened little sinner who was defying her
+authority and laughing her to scorn. After that it was two years before she
+could really believe anything good of Mikky.
+
+The president was a noble-faced, white-haired scholar, with a firm tender
+mouth, a brow of wisdom, and eyes of understanding. He was not the kind
+who win by great athletic prowess, he was an old-fashioned gentleman, well
+along in years, but young in heart. He looked at the child of the slums and
+saw the angel in the clay.
+
+He dismissed the matron with a pleasant assurance and took Mikky to an
+inner office where he let the boy sit quietly waiting a few minutes till
+he had finished writing a letter. If the pen halted and the kind eyes
+furtively studied the beautiful face of the child, Mikky never knew it.
+
+The president asked the boy to tell him what he had said, and Mikky, with
+sweet assurance repeated innocently the terrible phrases he had used,
+phrases which had been familiar to him since babyhood, conveying statements
+of facts that were horrible, but nevertheless daily happenings in the
+corner of the world where he had brought himself up.
+
+With rare tact the president questioned the boy, until he made sure there
+was no inherent rottenness in him: and then gently and kindly, but firmly
+laid down the law and explained why it was right and necessary that there
+should be a law. He spoke of the purity of God. Mikky knew nothing of God
+and listened with quiet interest. The president talked of education and
+culture and made matters very plain indeed. Then when the interview was
+concluded and the man asked the boy for a pledge of good faith and clean
+language from that time forth, Mikky's smile of approval blazed forth and
+he laid his hand in that of the president readily enough, and went forth
+from the room with a great secret admiration of the man with whom he had
+just talked. The whole conversation had appealed to him deeply.
+
+Mikky sought his room and laboriously spelled out with lately acquired
+clumsiness a letter to Buck:
+
+"Dear Buck we mussent yuz endecent langwidg enay moor ner swar. God donte
+lyk it an' it ain't educated. I want you an' me to be educate. I ain't gone
+to, donte yoo ner let de kids.--Mikky."
+
+In due time, according to previous arrangement about the monthly allowance,
+this letter reached Buck, and he tracked the doctor for two whole days
+before he located him and lay in wait till he came out to his carriage,
+when he made bold to hand over the letter to be read.
+
+The doctor, deeply touched, translated as best he could. Buck's education
+had been pitifully neglected. He watched the mystic paper in awe as the
+doctor read.
+
+"Wot's indecent langwidge?" he asked with his heavy frown.
+
+The doctor took the opportunity to deliver a brief sermon on purity, and
+Buck, without so much as an audible thank you, but with a thoughtful air
+that pleased the doctor, took back his letter, stuffed it into his ragged
+pocket and went on his way. The man watched him wistfully, wondering
+whether Mikky's appeal could reach the hardened little sinner; and, sighing
+at the wickedness of the world, went on his way grimly trying to make a few
+things better.
+
+That night "the kids" were gathered in front of little Janie's window,
+for she was too weak to go out with them, and Buck delivered a lesson in
+ethical culture. Whatever Mikky, their Prince, ordered, that must be done,
+and Buck was doing his level best, although for the life of him he couldn't
+see the sense in it. But thereafter none of "the kids" were allowed to use
+certain words and phrases, and swearing gradually became eliminated from
+their conversation. It would have been a curious study for a linguist to
+observe just what words and phrases were cut out, and what were allowed to
+flourish unrebuked; but nevertheless it was a reform, and Buck was doing
+his best.
+
+With his schoolmates Mikky had a curiously high position even from the
+first. His clothes were good and he had always a little money to spend.
+That had been one of Endicott's wishes that the boy should be like other
+boys. It meant something among a group of boys, most of whom were the sons
+of rich fathers, sent down to Florida on account of weak lungs or throats.
+Moreover, he was brave beyond anything they had ever seen before, could
+fight like a demon in defense of a smaller boy, and did not shrink from
+pitching into a fellow twice his size. He could tell all about the great
+base-ball and foot-ball games of New York City, knew the pitchers by name
+and yet did not boast uncomfortably. He could swim like a duck and dive
+fearlessly. He could outrun them all, by his lightness of foot, and was an
+expert in gliding away from any hand that sought to hold him back. They
+admired him from the first.
+
+His peculiar street slang did not trouble them in the least, nor his lack
+of class standing, though that presently began to be a thing of the past,
+for Mikky, so soon as he understood the way, marched steadily, rapidly, up
+the hill of knowledge, taking in everything that was handed out to him and
+assimilating it. It began to look as if there would not be any left over
+courses in the curriculum that might be given to some other deserving
+youth. Mikky would need them all. The president and the professors
+began presently to be deeply interested in this boy without a past; and
+everywhere, with every one, Mikky's smile won his way; except with the
+matron, who had not forgiven him that her recommendation of his instant
+dismissal from the college had not been accepted.
+
+The boys had not asked many questions about him, nor been told much. They
+knew his father and mother were dead. They thought he had a rich guardian,
+perhaps a fortune some day coming, they did not care. Mikky never spoke
+about any of these things and there was a strange reticence about him that
+made them dislike to ask him questions; even, when they came to know him
+well. He was entered under the name of Endicott, because, on questioning
+him Professor Harkness found he could lay no greater claim to any other
+surname, and called him that until he could write to Mr. Endicott for
+advice. He neglected to write at once and then, the name having become
+fastened upon the boy, he thought it best to let the matter alone as there
+was little likelihood of Mr. Endicott's coming down to the college, and
+it could do no harm. He never stopped to think out possible future
+complications and the boy became known as Michael Endicott.
+
+But his companions, as boys will, thought the matter over, and rechristened
+him "Angel"; and Angel, or Angel Endy he became, down to the end of his
+college course.
+
+One great delight of his new life was the out-of-door freedom he enjoyed. A
+beautiful lake spread its silver sheet at the foot of the campus slope and
+here the boy revelled in swimming and rowing. The whole country round
+was filled with wonder to his city-bred eyes. He attached himself to the
+teacher of natural sciences, and took long silent tramps for miles about.
+They penetrated dense hammocks, gathering specimens of rare orchids and
+exquisite flowers; they stood motionless and breathless for hours watching
+and listening to some strange wild bird; they became the familiar of slimy
+coiling serpents in dark bogs, and of green lizards and great black velvet
+spiders; they brought home ravishing butterflies and moths of pale green
+and gold and crimson. Mikky's room became a museum of curious and wonderful
+things, and himself an authority on a wide and varied range of topics.
+
+The new life with plenty of wholesome plain food, plenty of fresh air, long
+nights of good sleep, and happy exercise were developing the young body
+into strength and beauty, even as the study and contact, with life were
+developing the mind. Mikky grew up tall and straight and strong. In all
+the school, even among the older boys, there was none suppler, none so
+perfectly developed. His face and form were beautiful as Adonis, and yet it
+was no pink and white feminine beauty. There was strength, simplicity
+and character in his face. With the acceptance of his new code of morals
+according to the president, had grown gradually a certain look of high
+moral purpose. No boy in his presence dared use language not up to the
+standard. No boy with his knowledge dared do a mean or wrong thing. And
+yet, in spite of this, not a boy in the school but admired him and was more
+or less led by him. If he had been one whit less brave, one shade more
+conscious of self and self's interests, one tiny bit conceited, this would
+not have been. But from being a dangerous experiment in their midst Mikky
+became known as a great influence for good. The teachers saw it and
+marvelled. The matron saw it and finally, though grudgingly, accepted
+it. The president saw it and rejoiced. The students saw it not, but
+acknowledged it in their lives.
+
+Mikky's flame of gold hair had grown more golden and flaming with the
+years, so that when their ball team went to a near-by town to play, Mikky
+was sighted by the crowd and pointed out conspicuously at once.
+
+"Who is that boy with the hair?" some one would ask one of the team.
+
+"That? Oh, that's the Angel! Wait till you see him play," would be the
+reply. And he became known among outsiders as the Angel with the golden
+hair. At a game a listener would hear:
+
+"Oh, see! see! There'll be something doing now. The Angel's at the bat!"
+
+Yet in spite of all this the boy lived a lonely life. Giving of himself
+continually to those about him, receiving in return their love and
+devotion, he yet felt in a great sense set apart from them all. Every now
+and again some boy's father or mother, or both, would come down for a trip
+through the South; or a sister or a little brother. Then that boy would be
+excused from classes and go off with his parents for perhaps a whole week;
+or they would come to visit him every day, and Michael would look on and
+see the love light beaming in their eyes. That would never be for him. No
+one had ever loved him in that way.
+
+Sometimes he would close his eyes and try to get back in memory to the
+time when he was shot; and the wonder of the soft bed, the sweet room, and
+little Starr's kisses. But the years were multiplying now and room and
+nurse and all were growing very dim. Only little Starr's kisses remained,
+a delicate fragrance of baby love, the only kisses that the boy had ever
+known. One day, when a classmate had been telling of the coming of his
+father and what it would mean to him, Michael went into his room and
+locking his door sat down and wrote a stiff school boy letter to his
+benefactor, thanking him for all that he had done for him. It told briefly,
+shyly of a faint realization of that from which he had been saved; it
+showed a proper respect, and desire to make good, and it touched the heart
+of the busy man who had almost forgotten about the boy, but it gave no hint
+of the heart hunger which had prompted its writing.
+
+The next winter, when Michael was seventeen, Delevan Endicott and his
+daughter Starr took a flying trip through the South, and stopped for a
+night and a day at the college.
+
+The president told Michael of his expected coming. Professor Harkness had
+gone north on some school business.
+
+The boy received the news quietly enough, with one of his brilliant smiles,
+but went to his room with a tumult of wonder, joy, and almost fear in his
+heart. Would Mr. Endicott be like what he remembered, kind and interested
+and helpful? Would he be pleased with the progress his protégé had made,
+or would he be disappointed? Would there be any chance to ask after little
+Starr? She was a baby still in the thoughts of the boy, yet of course she
+must have grown. And so many things might have happened--she might not be
+living now. No one would think or care to tell him.
+
+Baby Starr! His beautiful baby! He exulted in the thought that he had flung
+his little useless life, once, between her lovely presence and death! He
+would do it again gladly now if that would repay all that her father had
+done for him. Michael the youth was beginning to understand all that that
+meant.
+
+Those other friends of his, Buck, Jimmie, Bobs, and the rest, were still
+enshrined in his faithful heart, though their memory had grown dimmer with
+the full passing years. Faithfully every month the boy had sent Buck two
+dollars from his pocket money, his heart swelling with pleasure that he was
+helping those he loved, but only twice had any word come back from that far
+city where he had left them. In answer to the letter which the doctor had
+translated to them, there had come a brief laborious epistle, terse and
+to the point, written with a stub of pencil on the corner of a piece of
+wrapping paper, and addressed by a kindly clerk at the post office where
+Buck bought the stamped envelope. It was the same clerk who usually paid
+to the urchin his monthly money order, so he knew the address. For the
+inditing of the letter Buck went to night school two whole weeks before he
+could master enough letters and words to finish it to his satisfaction, It
+read:
+
+"Deer Mik WE WunT
+
+"Buck."
+
+The significant words filled the boy's heart with pride over his friend
+whenever he thought of it, even after some time had passed. He had faith in
+Buck. Somehow in his mind it seemed that Buck was growing and keeping pace
+with him, and he never dreamed that if Buck should see him now he would not
+recognize him.
+
+When Mikky had been in Florida several years another letter had come from
+Buck addressed in the same way, and little better written than the other.
+Night school had proved too strenuous for Buck; besides, he felt he knew
+enough for all practical purposes and it was not likely he would need to
+write many letters. This, however, was an occasion that called for one.
+
+"Dear Mikky Jany is DEAD sHe sayd tell yo hur LUV beeryd hur in owr kote we
+giv hur ther wuz a angle wit pink wins on top uv the wite hurs an a wite
+hors we got a lot uv flowers by yur money so yo needn sen no mor money kuz
+we ken got long now til yo cum BUCK."
+
+After that, though Michael had written as usual every month for some time
+no reply had come, and the money orders had been returned to him as not
+called for. Buck in his simplicity evidently took it for granted that Mikky
+would not send the money and so came no more to the office, at least
+that was the solution Michael put upon it, and deep down in his heart
+he registered a vow to go and hunt up Buck the minute he was through at
+college, and free to go back to New York and help his friends. Meantime,
+though the years had dimmed those memories of his old life, and the days
+went rapidly forward in study, he kept always in view his great intention
+of one day going back to better his native community.
+
+But the coming of Mr. Endicott was a great event to the boy. He could
+scarcely sleep the night before the expected arrival.
+
+It was just before the evening meal that the through train from New York
+reached the station. Michael had been given the privilege of going down to
+meet his benefactor.
+
+Tall and straight and handsome he stood upon the platform as the train
+rushed into the town, his cheeks glowing from excitement, his eyes bright
+with anticipation, his cap in his hand, and the last rays of the setting
+sun glowing in his golden hair, giving a touch like a halo round his head.
+When Endicott saw him he exclaimed mentally over his strength and manly
+beauty, and more than one weary tourist leaned from the open car window and
+gazed, for there was ever something strange and strong and compelling about
+Michael that reminded one of the beauty of an angel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+Michael met Mr. Endicott unembarrassed. His early life in New York had
+given him a self-poise that nothing seemed to disturb; but when the father
+turned to introduce his young daughter, the boy caught his breath and gazed
+at her with deepening color, and intense delight.
+
+She was here then, his Starr! She had come to see him, and she looked just
+as he would have her look. He had not realized before that she would be
+grown up, but of course she would, and the change in her was not so great
+as to shock his memory. The clear white of her skin with its fresh coloring
+was the same. New York life had not made it sallow. The roses were in her
+cheeks as much as when she was a little child. Her eyes were the same, dark
+and merry and looked at him straightly, unabashed, with the ease of a
+girl trained by a society mother. The dark curls were there, only longer,
+hanging to the slender waist and crowned with a fine wide Panama hat. She
+gave him a little gloved hand and said: "I'm afraid I don't remember you
+very well, but daddy has been telling me about you and I'm very glad to see
+you."
+
+She was only a little over twelve, but she spoke with ease and simplicity,
+and for the first time in his life Michael felt conscious of himself. She
+was so perfect, so lovely, so finished in every expression and movement.
+She looked at him intelligently, politely curious, and no longer with the
+baby eyes that wondered at nothing. He himself could not help wondering
+what she must think of him, and for a few minutes he grew shy before her.
+
+Mr. Endicott was surprised and pleased at the appearance of the boy. The
+passing of the years had easily erased the tender feelings that Mikky the
+little street urchin had stirred in his heart. This visit to the school and
+college was not so much on account of the boy, to whom he had come to feel
+he had discharged his full duty, but because of the repeated invitations on
+the part of Professor Harkness and the president. It went not against him
+to see the institution to which he had from time to time contributed, in
+addition to his liberal allowance for the education of the boy. It was
+perfectly convenient for him to stop, being on the regular route he had
+laid out for his southern trip. His wife he had left at Palm Beach with her
+fashionable friends; and with Starr as his companion, the father was
+going through the orange belt on a tour of investigation with a view to
+investments. It suited him perfectly to stop off and receive the thanks of
+the college, therefore he stopped. Not that he was a heartless man, but
+there were so many things in his world to make him forget, and a little
+pleasant adulation is grateful to the most of us.
+
+But when Michael in all his striking beauty stood before him with the
+deference of a more than son, his heart suddenly gave a great leap back to
+the day when he had first looked down upon the little white face on the
+pillow; when the blue eyes had opened and Mikky had smiled. Michael smiled
+now, and Endicott became aware at once of the subtle fascination of that
+smile. And now the thought presented itself. "What if this were my son! how
+proud I should be of him!"
+
+Michael was indeed good to look upon even to the eyes of the city critic.
+Endicott had taken care to leave orders with his tailor for a full outfit
+to be sent to the boy, Spring and Fall, of suitable plain clothing for a
+school boy, little realizing how unnecessary it would have been to have
+dressed him so well. The tailor, nothing loth, had taken the measurements
+which were sent to him from year to year in answer to the letter of the
+firm, and had kept Michael looking as well as any rich man's son need
+desire to look. Not that the boy knew nor realized. The clothes came to
+him, like his board and tuition, and he took them well pleased and wrote
+his best letter of thanks each year as Professor Harkness suggested; but he
+had no idea that a part at least of his power of leadership with all the
+boys of the school was due to his plain though stylishly cut garments. This
+fact would not have counted for anything with boys who had been living in
+Florida for years, for any plain decent clothes were thought fit, no matter
+how they were cut; but the patronage of the school was at least one-half
+made up of rich men's sons who were sent South for a few years to a milder
+climate for their health. These as a rule, when they came, had exaggerated
+ideas of the importance of clothes and prevailing modes.
+
+And so it was that Michael did not look like a dowdy country boy to his
+benefactor, but on the contrary presented a remarkable contrast with many
+of the boys with whom Endicott was acquainted at home. There was something
+about Michael even when he was a small lad that commanded marked attention
+from all who saw him. This attention Endicott and his daughter gave now
+as they walked beside him in the glow of the sunset, and listened as he
+pointed out the various spots of interest in the little college town.
+
+The institution boasted of no carriage, and the single horse-car that
+travelled to the station belonged to the hotel and its guests. However, the
+walk was not long, and gave the travellers an opportunity to breathe the
+clear air and feel the stillness of the evening which was only emphasized
+by each separate sound now and again.
+
+Starr, as she walked on the inside of the board sidewalk, and looked down
+at the small pink and white and crimson pea blossoms growing broad-cast,
+and then up at the tallness of the great pines, felt a kind of awe stealing
+upon her. The one day she had spent at Palm Beach had been so filled with
+hotels and people and automobiles that she had had no opportunity to
+realize the tropical nature of the land. But here in this quiet spot,
+where the tiny station, the post office, the grocery, and a few scattered
+dwellings with the lights of the great tourists' hotel gleaming in the
+distance, seemed all there was of human habitation; and where the sky was
+wide even to bewilderment; she seemed suddenly to realize the difference
+from New York.
+
+Michael had recovered his poise as soon as she no longer faced him, though
+he was profoundly conscious of her presence there on the other side of her
+father. But he talked easily and well. Yes, there was the hotel. It held
+five hundred guests and was pretty well filled at this season of the
+year. There were some distinguished people stopping there. The railroad
+president's private car was on the track for a few hours last week. That
+car over on the siding belonged to a great steel magnate. The other one had
+brought the wife of a great inventor. Off there at the right toward the
+sunset were the school and college buildings. No, they could not be seen,
+until one passed the orange grove. Too bad there was no conveyance, but
+the one little car turned off toward the hotel at this corner, and the one
+beast of burden belonging to the college, the college Mule--Minus, by name,
+because there were so many things that he was not--was lame to-day and
+therefore could not be called into requisition to bring the guests from the
+station.
+
+Mr. Endicott felt that he was drawing nearer to nature in this quiet walk
+than he had been since he was a boy and visited his grandfather's farm.
+It rested and pleased him immensely, and he was charmed with the boy, his
+protégé. His frank, simple conversation was free from all affectation on
+the one hand, or from any hint of his low origin on the other hand. He felt
+already that he had done a good thing in sending this boy down here to be
+educated. It was worth the little money he had put into it.
+
+Starr watched Michael shyly from the shelter of her father's side and
+listened to him. He was not like the boys she met in New York. To begin
+with he was remarkably fine looking, and added to that there was a mingled
+strength and kindliness in his face, and above all about his smile, that
+made her feel instinctively that he was nobler than most of them. She could
+not think of a boy of her acquaintance who had a firm chin like that. This
+boy had something about him that made the girl know instantly that he had
+a greater purpose in life than his own pleasure. Not that she thought this
+all out analytically. Starr had never learned to think. She only felt it
+as she looked at him, and liked him at once. Moreover there was a sort of
+glamour over the boy in her eyes, for her father had just been telling her
+the story of how he had saved her life when she was barely two years
+old. She felt a prideful proprietorship in him that made her shy in his
+presence.
+
+At the college president's gate, just on the edge of the campus, the
+president came out with apologies. He had been detained on a bit of
+business at the county seat five miles away, and had driven home with a
+friend whose horse was very slow. He was sorry not to have done their
+honored guests the courtesy of being at the station on their arrival.
+Endicott walked with the president after the greetings, and Michael dropped
+behind with Starr eagerly pointing out to her the buildings.
+
+"That's the chapel, and beyond are the study and recitation rooms. The next
+is the dining hall and servant's quarters, and over on that side of the
+campus is our dormitory. My window looks down on the lake. Every morning I
+go before breakfast for a swim."
+
+"Oh, aren't you afraid of alligators?" exclaimed Starr shivering prettily.
+
+Michael looked down at her fragile loveliness with a softened appreciation,
+as one looks at the tender precious things of life that need protection.
+
+"No," he answered without laughing, as some of the other boys would have
+done at her girlish fears, "they never bother us here, and besides, I'm
+sort of acquainted with them. I'm not afraid of them. Nothing will hurt you
+if you understand it well enough to look out for its rights."
+
+"Oh!" said Starr eyeing him in wonder. As if an alligator had rights! What
+a strange, interesting boy. The idea of understanding an alligator. She was
+about to ask how understanding the creature would keep one from being eaten
+up when Michael pointed to the crimsoning West:
+
+"See!" he said eagerly as if he were pointing to a loved scene, "the sun is
+almost down. Don't you love to watch it? In a minute more it will be gone
+and then it will be dark. Hear that evening bird? 'Tit-wiloo! Tit-wiloo!'
+He sings sometimes late at night."
+
+Starr followed his eager words, and saw the sun slipping, slipping like a
+great ruby disc behind the fringe of palm and pine and oak that bordered
+the little lake below the campus; saw the wild bird dart from the thicket
+into the clear amber of the sky above, utter its sweet weird call, and
+drop again into the fine brown shadows of the living picture; watched,
+fascinated as the sun slipped lower, lower, to the half now, and now less
+than half.
+
+Breathless they both stood and let the two men go on ahead, while they
+watched the wonder of the day turn into night. The brilliant liquid crimson
+poured itself away to other lands, till only a rim of wonderful glowing
+garnet remained; then, like a living thing dying into another life, it too
+dropped away, and all was night.
+
+"Why! How dark it is!" exclaimed Starr as she turned to her companion again
+and found she could scarcely see his face. "Why! How queer! Where is the
+twilight? Is anything the matter? I never saw it get dark all at once like
+this!" She peered around into the strange velvet darkness with troubled
+eyes.
+
+Michael was all attention at once.
+
+"No, that's all right," he assured her. "That's the way we do here. Almost
+everybody from the north speaks about it at first. They can't understand
+it. Its the difference in the position of the sun, nearer the equator, you
+know. I'll show you all about it on the chart in the astronomical room if
+you care to see. We haven't any twilight here. I should think twilight
+would be queer. You wouldn't just know when night began and day ended. I
+don't remember about it when I lived in New York. Look up there! That's the
+evening star! It's come out for you to-night--to welcome another--Starr!"
+
+Oh, Michael, of unknown origin! Whence came that skill of delicate
+compliment, that grace of courtesy, that you, plucked from the slime of the
+gutter, set apart from all sweetening influences of loving contact with,
+womankind, should be able so gallantly and respectfully to guide the young
+girl through the darkness, touching her little elbow distantly, tactfully,
+reverently, exactly as the college president helps his wife across the
+road on Sabbath to the church? Is it only instinct, come down from some
+patrician ancestor of gallant ways and kind, or have you watched and caught
+the knack from the noble scholar who is your ideal of all that is manly?
+
+They walked silently through the warm darkness until they came within the
+circle of light from the open door, and matron and teachers came out to
+welcome the young stranger and bring her into the house.
+
+Michael lingered for a moment by the door, watching her as she went with
+the matron, her sweet face wreathed in smiles, the matron's thin arm around
+her and a new and gentle look upon her severe countenance; watched until
+they mounted the stairs out of sight; then he went out of doors.
+
+Taking off his cap he stood reverently looking up at the star, communing
+with it perhaps about the human Starr that had come back to him out of the
+shadows of the past.
+
+And she was a star. No one who saw her but acknowledged it. He marvelled as
+he recalled the change wrought in the face of the matron and because of her
+gentleness to the little girl forgave her all that she had not been to his
+motherless boyhood.
+
+Starr came down to dinner in a few minutes radiant in a little rosy frock
+of soft Eastern silk, girdled with a fringed scarf of the same and a knot
+of coral velvet in her hair. From the string of pearls about her white neck
+to the dainty point of her slipper she was exquisite and Michael watched
+her with open admiration; whereat the long lashes drooped shyly over the
+girl's rosy cheeks and she was mightily pleased.
+
+She sat at her father's side to the right of the president, with Michael
+across the table. Well he bore the scrutiny of Endicott's keen eyes which
+through all the conversation kept searching the intelligent face of the
+boy.
+
+The evening passed like a dream, and Michael lay awake again that night
+thinking of all the pleasure in anticipation for the next day. At last, at
+last he had some people who in a way he might call his own. They had cared
+to come and see him after all the years! His heart swelled with joy and
+gratitude.
+
+The guests attended chapel exercises with the students the next morning,
+and Michael saw with pride the eyes of his companions turn toward the
+beautiful young girl, and look at him almost with envy. The color mounted
+into his strong young face, but he sat quietly in his place and no one
+would have guessed to look at him, the tumult that was running riot in his
+veins. He felt it was the very happiest day of his life.
+
+After chapel the guests were shown about the college buildings and campus.
+The president and Endicott walked ahead, Michael behind with Starr,
+answering her interested questions.
+
+They had been through all the classrooms, the gymnasium, the dining hall,
+servants' quarters and dormitories. They had visited the athletic ground,
+the tennis courts, and gone down by the little lake, where Michael had
+taken them out for a short row. Returning they were met by one of the
+professors who suggested their going to hear some of the classes recite,
+and as Mr. Endicott seemed interested they turned their steps toward the
+recitation hall.
+
+"I think," said Starr as they walked slowly across the campus together,
+"that you must be a very brave boy. To think of you saving my life that way
+when you were just a little fellow!"
+
+She looked up, her pretty face full of childish feeling.
+
+Michael looked down silently and smiled. He was wondering if any eyes were
+ever as beautiful as those before him. He had never had even a little girl
+look at him like that. The president's daughter was fat and a romp. She
+never took time to look at the boys. The few other girls he knew, daughters
+of the professors, were quiet and studious. They paid little attention to
+the boys.
+
+"I want to thank you for what you did," went on Starr, "only I can't think
+of any words great enough to tell you how I feel about it. I wish there was
+something I could do to show you how I thank you?"
+
+She lifted her sweet eyes again to his. They were entering the large Hall
+of the college now.
+
+"This way," said Michael guiding her toward the chapel door which had just
+swung to behind the two men.
+
+"Isn't there something you would like that I could do for you?" persisted
+Starr earnestly, following him into the empty chapel where Mr. Endicott and
+the president stood looking at a tablet on the wall by the further door.
+
+"Your father has done everything for me," said Michael sunnily, with a
+characteristic sweep of his hand that seemed to include himself, his
+garments and his mental outfit. He turned upon her his blazing smile that
+spoke more eloquently than words could have done.
+
+"Yes, but that is papa," said Starr half impatiently, softly stamping her
+daintily shod foot. "He did that because of what you did for _him_ in
+saving my life. I should like to do something to thank you for what you did
+for _me_. I'm worth something to myself you know. Isn't there something I
+could do for you."
+
+She stood still, looking up into his face anxiously, her vivid childish
+beauty seeming to catch all the brightness of the place and focus it
+upon him. The two men had passed out of the further door and on to the
+recitation rooms. The girl and boy were alone for the moment.
+
+"You have done something for me, you did a great deal," he said, his voice
+almost husky with boyish tenderness. "I think it was the greatest thing
+that anybody ever did for me."
+
+"I did something for you! When? What?" questioned Starr curiously.
+
+"Yes," he said, "you did a great thing for me. Maybe you don't remember it,
+but I do. It was when I was getting well from the shot there at your house,
+and your nurse used to bring you up to play with me every day; and always
+before you went away, you used to kiss me. I've never forgotten that."
+
+He said it quite simply as if it were a common thing for a boy to say to a
+girl. His voice was low as though the depths of his soul were stirred.
+
+A flood of pretty color came into Starr's cheeks.
+
+"Oh!" she said quite embarrassed at the turn of the conversation, "but that
+was when I was a baby. I couldn't do that now. Girls don't kiss boys you
+know. It wouldn't be considered proper."
+
+"I know," said Michael, his own color heightening now, "I didn't mean that.
+I wanted you to know how much you had done for me already. You don't know
+what it is never to have been kissed by your mother, or any living soul.
+Nobody ever kissed me in all my life that I know of but you."
+
+He looked down at the little girl with such a grave, sweet expression, his
+eyes so expressive of the long lonely years without woman's love, that
+child though she was Starr seemed to understand, and her whole young soul
+went forth in pity. Tears sprang to her eyes.
+
+"Oh!" she said, "That is dreadful! Oh!--I don't care if it isn't proper--"
+
+And before he knew what she was about to do the little girl tilted to her
+tiptoes, put up her dainty hands, caught him about the neck and pressed a
+warm eager kiss on his lips. Then she sprang away frightened, sped across
+the room, and through the opposite door.
+
+Michael stood still in a bewilderment of joy for the instant. The
+compelling of her little hands, the pressure of her fresh lips still
+lingered with him. A flood tide of glory swept over his whole being. There
+were tears in his eyes, but he did not know it. He stood with bowed head as
+though in a holy place. Nothing so sacred, so beautiful, had ever come into
+his life. Her baby kisses had been half unconscious. This kiss was given of
+her own free will, because she wanted to do something for him. He did not
+attempt to understand the wonderful joy that surged through his heart and
+pulsed in every fibre of his being. His lonely, unloved life was enough to
+account for it, and he was only a boy with a brief knowledge of life; but
+he knew enough to enshrine that kiss in his heart of hearts as a holy
+thing, not even to be thought about carelessly.
+
+When he roused himself to follow her she had disappeared. Her father and
+the president were listening to a recitation, but she was nowhere to be
+seen. She had gone to her own room. Michael went down by himself in a
+thicket by the lake.
+
+She met him shyly at dinner, with averted gaze and a glow on her cheeks, as
+if half afraid of what she had done, but he reassured her with his eyes.
+His glance seemed to promise he would never take advantage of what she had
+done. His face wore an exalted look, as if he had been lifted above earth,
+and Starr, looking at him wonderingly, was glad she had followed her
+impulse.
+
+They took a horseback ride to the college grove that afternoon, Mr.
+Endicott, one of the professors, Starr and Michael. The president had
+borrowed the horses from some friends.
+
+Michael sat like a king upon his horse. He had ridden the college mule
+bareback every summer, and riding seemed to be as natural to him as any
+other sport. Starr had been to a New York riding school, and was accustomed
+to taking her morning exercise with her father in the Park, or accompanied
+by a footman; but she sat her Florida pony as happily as though he had been
+a shiny, well-groomed steed of priceless value. Somehow it seemed to her
+an unusually delightful experience to ride with this nice boy through the
+beautiful shaded road of arching live-oaks richly draped with old gray
+moss. Michael stopped by the roadside, where the shade was dense,
+dismounted and plunged into the thicket, returning in a moment with two
+or three beautiful orchids and some long vines of the wonderful yellow
+jessamine whose exquisite perfume filled all the air about. He wreathed the
+jessamine about the pony's neck, and Starr twined it about her hat and wore
+the orchids in her belt.
+
+Starr had never seen an orange grove before and took great delight in
+the trees heavily loaded with fruit, green and yellow and set about by
+blossoms. She tucked a spray of blossoms in her dark hair under the edge of
+her hat, and Michael looked at her and smiled in admiration. Mr. Endicott,
+glancing toward his daughter, caught the look, and was reminded of the time
+when he had found the two children in his own drawing room being made
+a show for his wife's guests, and sighed half in pleasure, half in
+foreboding. What a beautiful pair they were to be sure, and what had the
+future in store for his little girl?
+
+On the way back they skirted another lake and Michael dismounted again to
+bring an armful of great white magnolia blossoms, and dainty bay buds to
+the wondering Starr; and then they rode slowly on through the wooded, road,
+the boy telling tales of adventures here and there; pointing out a blue jay
+or calling attention to the mocking bird's song.
+
+"I wish you could be here next week," said the boy wistfully. "It will
+be full moon then. There is no time to ride through this place like a
+moonlight evening. It seems like fairyland then. The moonbeams make fairy
+ladders of the jessamine vines."
+
+"It must be beautiful," said Starr dreamily. Then they rode for a few
+minutes in silence. They were coming to the end of the overarched avenue.
+Ahead of them the sunlight shone clearly like the opening of a great tunnel
+framed in living green. Suddenly Starr looked up gravely:
+
+"I'm going to kiss you good-bye to-night when, we go away," she said
+softly; and touching her pony lightly with the whip rode out into the
+bright road; the boy, his heart leaping with joy, not far behind her.
+
+Before supper Mr. Endicott had a talk with Michael that went further toward
+making the fatherless boy feel that he had someone belonging to him than
+anything that had happened yet.
+
+"I think you have done enough for me, sir," said Michael respectfully
+opening the conversation as Endicott came out to the porch where the boy
+was waiting for him. "I think I ought to begin to earn my own living. I'm
+old enough now--" and he held his head up proudly. "It's been very good of
+you all these years--I never can repay you. I hope you will let me pay the
+money back that you have spent on me, some day when, I can earn enough--"
+
+Michael had been thinking this speech out ever since the president had told
+him of Endicott's expected visit, but somehow it did not sound as well to
+him when he said it as he had thought it would. It seemed the only right
+thing to do when he planned it, but in spite of him as he looked into Mr.
+Endicott's kind, keen eyes, his own fell in troubled silence. Had his words
+sounded ungrateful? Had he seen a hurt look in the man's eyes?
+
+"Son," said Endicott after a pause, and the word stirred the boy's heart
+strangely, "son, I owe you a debt you never can repay. You gave me back my
+little girl, flinging your own life into the chance as freely as if you
+had another on hand for use any minute. I take it that I have at least a
+father's right in you at any rate, and I mean to exercise it until you are
+twenty-one. You must finish a college course first. When will that be?
+Three years? They tell me you are doing well. The doctor wants to keep you
+here to teach after you have graduated, but I had thought perhaps you would
+like to come up to New York and have your chance. I'll give you a year or
+two in business, whatever seems to be your bent when you are through, and
+then we'll see. Which would you rather do? Or, perhaps you'd prefer to let
+your decision rest until the time comes."
+
+"I think I'm bound to go back to New York, sir," said Michael lifting his
+head with that peculiar motion all his own, so like a challenge. "You know,
+sir, you said I was to be educated so that I might help my friends. I have
+learned of course that you meant it in a broader sense than just those few
+boys, for one can help people anywhere; but still I feel as if it wouldn't
+be right for me not to go back. I'm sure they'll expect me."
+
+Endicott shrugged his shoulders half admiringly.
+
+"Loyal to your old friends still? Well, that's commendable, but still I
+fancy you'll scarcely find them congenial now. I wouldn't let them hang too
+closely about you. They might become a nuisance. You have your way to make
+in the world, you know."
+
+Michael looked at his benefactor with troubled brows. Somehow the tone of
+the man disturbed him.
+
+"I promised," he said simply. Because there had bean so little in his
+affections that promise had been cherished through the years, and meant
+much to Michael. It stood for Principle and Loyalty in general.
+
+"Oh, well, keep your promise, of course," said the man of the world easily.
+"I fancy you will find the discharge of it a mere form."
+
+A fellow student came across the campus.
+
+"Endicott," he called, "have you seen Hallowell go toward the village
+within a few minutes?"
+
+"He just want, out the gate," responded Michael pleasantly.
+
+Mr. Endicott looked up surprised.
+
+"Is that the name by which you are known?"
+
+"Endicott? Yes, sir, Michael Endicott. Was it not by your wish? I supposed
+they had asked you. I had no other name that I knew."
+
+"Ah! I didn't know," pondered Endicott.
+
+There was silence for a moment.
+
+"Would you,--shall I--do you dislike my having it?" asked the boy
+delicately sensitive at once.
+
+But the man looked up with something like tenderness in his smile.
+
+"Keep it, son. I like it. I wish I had a boy like you. It is an old name
+and a proud one. Be worthy of it."
+
+"I will try, sir," said Michael, as if he were registering a vow.
+
+There was an early supper for the guests and then Michael walked through
+another sunset to the station with Starr. He carried a small box carefully
+prepared in which reposed a tiny green and blue lizard for a parting gift.
+She had watched the lizards scuttling away under the board sidewalks at
+their approach, or coming suddenly to utter stillness, changing their
+brilliant colors to gray like the fence boards that they might not be
+observed. She was wonderfully interested in them, and was charmed with her
+gift. The particular lizard in question was one that Michael had trained to
+eat crumbs from his hand, and was quite tame.
+
+The two said little as they walked along together. Each was feeling what a
+happy time they had spent in one another's company.
+
+"I shall write and tell you how the lizard is," said Starr laughing, "and
+you will tell me all about the funny and interesting things you are doing,
+won't you?"
+
+"If--I may," said Michael wistfully.
+
+At the station a New York acquaintance of the Endicotts' invited them to
+ride in his private car which was on the side track waiting for the train
+to pick them up. Michael helped Starr up the steps, and carried the lizard
+into the car as well as the great sheaf of flowers she insisted on taking
+with her.
+
+There were some ladies inside who welcomed Starr effusively; and Michael,
+suddenly abashed, laid down the flowers, lifted his cap and withdrew. A
+sudden blank had come upon him. Starr was absorbed by people from another
+world than his. He would have no opportunity to say good-bye--and she had
+promised--But then of course he ought not to expect her to do that. She had
+been very kind to him--
+
+He was going down the steps now. An instant more and he would be on the
+cinders of the track.
+
+A sudden rush, a soft cry, caused him to pause on the second step of the
+vestibuled car. It was Starr, standing just above him, and her eyes were
+shining like her namesake the evening star.
+
+"You were going without good-bye," she reproved, and her cheeks were rosy
+red, but she stood her ground courageously. Placing a soft hand gently on
+either cheek as he stood below her, his face almost on a level with hers,
+she tilted his head toward her and touched his lips with her own red ones,
+delicately as if a rose had swept them.
+
+Simultaneously came the sound of the distant train.
+
+"Good-bye, you nice, splendid boy!" breathed Starr, and waving her hand
+darted inside the ear.
+
+Mr. Endicott, out on the platform, still talking to the president, heard
+the oncoming train and looked around for Michael. He saw him coming from
+the car with his exalted look upon his face, his cap off, and the golden
+beams of the sun again sending their halo like a nimbus over his hair.
+
+Catching his hand heartily, he said:
+
+"Son, I'm pleased with you. Keep it up, and come to me when you are ready.
+I'll give you a start."
+
+Michael gripped his hand and blundered out some words of thanks. Then the
+train was upon them, and Endicott had to go.
+
+The two younger ladies in the car, meantime, were plying Starr with
+questions. "Who is that perfectly magnificent young man. Starr Endicott?
+Why didn't you introduce him to us? I declare I never saw such a beautiful
+face on any human being before."
+
+A moment more and the private car was fastened to the train, and Starr
+leaning from the window waved her tiny handkerchief until the train had
+thundered away among the pines, and there was nothing left but the echo of
+its sound. The sun was going down but it mattered not. There was sunshine
+in the boy's heart. She was gone, his little Starr, but she had left the
+memory of her soft kiss and her bright eyes; and some day, some day, when
+he was done with college, he would see her again. Meantime he was content.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+The joy of loving kindness in his life, and a sense that somebody cared,
+seemed to have the effect of stimulating Michael's mind to greater
+energies. He studied with all his powers. Whatever he did he did with his
+might, even his play.
+
+The last year of his stay in Florida, a Department of Scientific Farming
+was opened on a small scale. Michael presented himself as a student.
+
+"What do you want of farming, Endicott?" asked the president, happening to
+pass through the room on the first day of the teacher's meeting with his
+students. "You can't use farming in New York."
+
+There was perhaps in the kindly old president's mind a hope that the boy
+would linger with them, for he had become attached to him in a silent,
+undemonstrative sort of way.
+
+"I might need it sometime," answered Michael, "and anyway I'd like to
+understand it. You said the other day that no knowledge was ever wasted.
+I'd like to know enough at least to tell somebody else."
+
+The president smiled, wondered, and passed on. Michael continued in the
+class, supplementing the study by a careful reading of all the Agricultural
+magazines, and Government literature on the subject that came in his way.
+Agriculture had had a strange fascination for him ever since a noted
+speaker from the North had come that way and in an address to the students
+told them that the new field for growth to-day lay in getting hack to
+nature and cultivating the earth. It was characteristic of Michael that he
+desired to know if that statement was true, and if so, why. Therefore he
+studied.
+
+The three years flew by as if by magic. Michael won honors not a few, and
+the day came when he had completed his course, and as valedictorian of his
+class, went up to the old chapel for his last commencement in the college.
+
+He sat on the platform looking down on the kindly, uncritical audience that
+had assembled for the exercises, and saw not a single face that had come
+for his sake alone. Many were there who were interested in him because they
+had known him through the years, and because he bore the reputation of
+being the honor man of his class and the finest athlete in school. But that
+was not like having some one of his very own who cared whether he did well
+or not. He found himself wishing that even Buck might have been there;
+Buck, the nearest to a brother he had ever had. Would Buck have cared that
+he had won highest rank? Yes, he felt that Buck would have been proud of
+him.
+
+Michael had sent out three invitations to commencement, one to Mr.
+Endicott, one to Starr, and one addressed to Buck, with the inner envelope
+bearing the words "For Buck and 'the kids,'" but no response had come to
+any of them. He had received back the one addressed to Buck with "Not
+Called For" in big pink letters stamped across the corner. It had reached
+him that morning, just before he came on the platform. He wished it had
+not come till night; it gave him a lonely, almost forsaken feeling. He was
+"educated" now, at least enough to know what he did not know; and there was
+no one to care.
+
+When Michael sat down after his oration amid a storm of hearty applause,
+prolonged by his comrades into something like an ovation, some one handed
+him a letter and a package. There had been a mistake made at the post
+office in sorting the mail and these had not been put into the college box.
+One of the professors going down later found them and brought them up.
+
+The letter was from Mr. Endicott containing a businesslike line of
+congratulations, a hope that the recipient would come to New York if he
+still felt of that mind, and a check for a hundred dollars.
+
+Michael looked at the check awesomely, re-read the letter carefully and
+put both in his pocket. The package was tiny and addressed in Starr's
+handwriting. Michael saved that till he should go to his room. He did not
+want to open it before any curious eyes.
+
+Starr's letters had been few and far between, girlish little epistles;
+and the last year they had ceased altogether. Starr was busy with life;
+finishing-school and dancing-school and music-lessons and good times.
+Michael was a dim and pleasant vision to her.
+
+The package contained a scarf-pin of exquisite workmanship. Starr had
+pleased herself by picking out the very prettiest thing she could find. She
+had her father's permission to spend as much as she liked on it. It was in
+the form of an orchid, with a tiny diamond like a drop of dew on one petal.
+
+Michael looked on it with wonder, the first suggestion of personal
+adornment that had ever come to him. He saw the reminder of their day
+together in the form of the orchid; studied the beautiful name, "Starr
+Delevan Endicott," engraved upon the card; then put them carefully back
+into their box and locked it into his bureau drawer. He would wear it the
+first time he went to see Starr. He was very happy that day.
+
+The week after college closed Michael drove the college mule to the county
+seat, ten miles away, and bought a small trunk. It was not much of a trunk
+but it was the best the town afforded. In this he packed all his worldly
+possessions, bade good-bye to the president, and such of the professors as
+had not already gone North for their vacations, took a long tramp to all
+his old haunts, and boarded the midnight train for New York.
+
+The boy had a feeling of independence which kept him from letting his
+benefactor know of his intended arrival. He did not wish to make him any
+unnecessary trouble, and though he had now been away from New York for
+fourteen years, he felt a perfect assurance that he could find his way
+about. There are some things that one may learn even at seven, that will
+never be forgotten.
+
+When Michael landed in New York he looked about him with vague bewilderment
+for a moment. Then he started out with assurance to find a new spot for
+himself in the world.
+
+Suit-case he had not, nor any baggage but his trunk to hinder him. He had
+discovered that the trunk could remain in the station for a day without
+charge. The handsome raincoat and umbrella which had been a part of the
+outfit the tailor had sent him that spring were all his encumbrances, so he
+picked his way unhampered across Liberty Street, eyeing his former enemies,
+the policemen, and every little urchin or newsboy with interest. Of course
+Buck and the rest would have grown up and changed some; they wouldn't
+likely be selling papers now--but--these were boys such as he had been. He
+bought a paper of a little ragged fellow with a pinched face, and a strange
+sensation came over him. When he left this city he was the newsboy, and now
+he had money enough to buy a paper--and the education to read it! What a
+difference! Not that he wanted the paper at present, though it might prove
+interesting later, but he wanted the experience of buying it. It marked the
+era of change in his life and made the contrast tremendous. Immediately his
+real purpose in having an education, the uplift of his fellow-beings,
+which had been most vague during the years, took form and leapt into vivid
+interest, as he watched the little skinny legs of the newsboy nimbly
+scrambling across the muddy street under the feet of horses, and between
+automobiles, in imminent danger of his life.
+
+Michael had thought it all out, just what he would do, and he proceeded to
+carry out his purpose. He had no idea what a fine picture of well-groomed
+youth and manly beauty he presented as he marched down the street. He
+walked like a king, and New York abashed him no more now that he had come
+back than it did before he went away. There are some spirits born that way.
+He walked like a "gentleman, unafraid."
+
+He had decided not to go to Mr. Endicott until he had found lodgings
+somewhere. An innate delicacy had brought him to this decision. He would
+not put one voluntary burden upon his kind benefactor. Born and bred in the
+slums, whence came this fineness of feeling? Who shall say?
+
+Michael threaded his way through the maze of traffic, instinct and vague
+stirrings of memory guiding him to a quiet shabby street where he found a
+dingy little room for a small price. The dangers that might have beset a
+strange young man in the great city were materially lessened for him on
+account of his wide reading. He had read up New York always wherever
+he found an article or book or story that touched upon it; and without
+realizing it he was well versed in details. He had even pondered for hours
+over a map of New York that he found in the back of an old magazine,
+comparing it with his faint memories, until he knew the location of things
+with relation to one another pretty well. A stranger less versed might have
+gotten into most undesirable quarters.
+
+The boy looked around his new home with a strange sinking of heart, after
+he had been out to get something to eat, and arranged for his trunk to be
+sent to his room. It was very tiny and not over clean. The wall paper was
+a dingy flowered affair quite ancient in design, and having to all
+appearances far outlived a useful life. The one window looked out to brick
+walls, chimneys and roofs. The noise of the city clattered in; the smells
+and the heat made it almost stifling to the boy who had lived for thirteen
+years in the sunshine of the South, and the freedom of the open.
+
+The narrow bed looked uninviting, the bureau-washstand was of the cheapest,
+and the reflection Michael saw in its warped mirror would have made any boy
+with a particle of vanity actually suffer. Michael, however, was not vain.
+He thought little about himself, but this room was depressing. The floor
+was covered with a nondescript carpet faded and soiled beyond redemption,
+and when his trunk was placed between the bureau and the bed there would be
+scarcely room for the one wooden chair. It was not a hopeful outlook. The
+boy took off his coat and sat down on the bed to whistle.
+
+Life, grim, appalling, spectral-like, uprose before his mental vision,
+and he spent a bad quarter of an hour trying to adjust himself to his
+surroundings; his previous sunny philosophy having a tough tussle with the
+sudden realities of things as they were. Then his trunk arrived.
+
+It was like Michael to unpack it at once and put all his best philosophical
+resolves into practice.
+
+As he opened the trunk a whiff of the South, exhaled. He caught his breath
+with a sudden keen, homesickness. He realized that his school days were
+over, and all the sweetness and joy of that companionful life passed. He
+had often felt alone in those days. He wondered at it now. He had never in
+all his experience known such aloneness as now in this great strange city.
+
+The last thing he had put into his trunk had been a branch of mammoth pine
+needles. The breath of the tree brought back all that meant home to him. He
+caught it up and buried his face in the plumy tassels.
+
+The tray of the trunk was filled with flags, pennants, photographs, and
+college paraphernalia. Eagerly he pulled them all out and spread them over
+the bumpy little bed. Then he grabbed for his hat and rushed out. In a few
+minutes he returned with a paper of tacks, another of pins, and a small
+tack hammer. In an hour's time he had changed the atmosphere of the whole
+place. Not an available inch of bare wall remained with, its ugly, dirty
+wallpaper. College colors, pennants and flags were grouped about pictures,
+and over the unwashed window was draped Florida moss. Here and there,
+apparently fluttering on the moss or about the room, were fastened
+beautiful specimens of semi-tropical moths and butterflies in the gaudiest
+of colors. A small stuffed alligator reposed above the window, gazing
+apathetically down, upon the scene. A larger alligator skin was tacked on
+one wall. One or two queer bird's nests fastened to small branches hung
+quite naturally here and there.
+
+Michael threw down the hammer and sat down to survey his work, drawing a
+breath of relief. He felt more at home now with the photographs of his
+fellow students smiling down upon him. Opposite was the base-ball team,
+frowning and sturdy; to the right the Glee Club with himself as their
+leader; to the left a group of his classmates, with his special chum in the
+midst. As he gazed at that kindly face in the middle he could almost hear
+the friendly voice calling to him: "Come on, Angel! You're sure to win
+out!"
+
+Michael felt decidedly better, and fell to hanging up his clothes and
+arranging his effects on clean papers in the rheumatic bureau drawers.
+These were cramped quarters but would do for the present until he was sure
+of earning some money, for he would not spend his little savings more than
+he could help now and he would not longer be dependent upon the benefaction
+of Mr. Endicott.
+
+When his box of books arrived he would ask permission to put some shelves
+over the window. Then he would feel quite cosy and at home.
+
+So he cheered himself as he went about getting into his best garments, for
+he intended to arrive at Madison Avenue about the time that his benefactor
+reached home for the evening.
+
+Michael knew little of New York ways, and less of the habits of society;
+the few novels that had happened in his way being his only instructors on
+the subject. He was going entirely on his dim memories of the habits of the
+Endicott home during his brief stay there. As it happened Mr. Endicott was
+at home when Michael arrived and the family were dining alone.
+
+The boy was seated in the reception room gazing about him with the ease
+of his habitual unconsciousness of self, when Endicott came down bringing
+Starr with him. A second time the man of the world was deeply impressed
+with the fine presence of this boy from obscurity. He did not look out of
+place even in a New York drawing room. It was incredible; though of course
+a large part of it was due to his city-made clothing. Still, that would not
+by any means account for case of manner, graceful courtesy, and an instinct
+for saying the right thing at the right time.
+
+Endicott invited the lad to dine with them and Starr eagerly seconded the
+invitation. Michael accepted as eagerly, and a few moments later found
+himself seated at the elegantly appointed table by the side of a beautiful
+and haughty woman who stared at him coldly, almost insultingly, and made
+not one remark to him throughout the whole meal. The boy looked at her half
+wonderingly. It almost seemed as if she intended to resent his presence,
+yet of course that could not be. His idea of this whole family was the
+highest. No one belonging to Starr could of course be aught but lovely of
+spirit.
+
+Starr herself seemed to feel the disapproval of her mother, and shrink into
+herself, saying very little, but smiling shyly at Michael now and then when
+her mother was not noticing her.
+
+Starr was sixteen now, slender and lovely as she had given promise of
+being. Michael watched her satisfied. At last he turned to the mother
+sitting in her cold grandeur, and with the utmost earnestness and deference
+in his voice said, his glance still half toward Starr:
+
+"She is like you, and yet not!"
+
+He said it gravely, as if it were a discovery of the utmost importance to
+them both, and he felt sure it was the key to her heart, this admission of
+his admiration of the beautiful girl.
+
+Mrs. Endicott froze him with her glance.
+
+From the roots of his hair down to the tips of his toes and back again
+he felt it, that insulting resentment of his audacity in expressing any
+opinion about her daughter; or in fact in having any opinion. For an
+instant his self-possession deserted him, and his face flushed with mingled
+emotions. Then he saw a look of distress on Starr's face as she struggled
+to make reply for her silent mother:
+
+"Yes, mamma and I are often said to resemble one another strongly," and
+there was a tremble in Starr's voice that roused all the manliness in
+the boy. He flung off the oppression that was settling down upon him and
+listened attentively to what Endicott was saying, responding gracefully,
+intelligently, and trying to make himself think that it was his
+inexperience with ladies that had caused him to say something
+inappropriate. Henceforth during the evening he made no more personal
+remarks.
+
+Endicott took the boy to his den after dinner, and later Starr slipped in
+and they talked a little about their beautiful day in Florida together.
+Starr asked him if he still rode and would like to ride with her in the
+Park the next morning when she took her exercise, and it was arranged in
+the presence of her father and with his full consent that Michael should
+accompany her in place of the groom who usually attended her rides.
+
+Mrs. Endicott came in as they were making this arrangement, and immediately
+called Starr sharply out of the room.
+
+After their withdrawal Endicott questioned the boy carefully about his
+college course and his habits of living. He was pleased to hear that
+Michael had been independent enough to secure lodgings before coming to his
+house. It showed a spirit that was worth helping, though he told him that
+he should have come straight to him.
+
+As Endicott was going off on a business trip for a week he told Michael to
+enjoy himself looking around the city during his absence, and on his return
+present himself at the office at an appointed hour when he would put him in
+the way of something that would start him in life.
+
+Michael thanked him and went back to his hot little room on the fourth
+floor, happy in spite of heat and dinginess and a certain homesick feeling.
+Was he not to ride with Starr in the morning? He could hardly sleep for
+thinking of it, and of all he had to say to her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+When Michael presented himself at the appointed hour the next morning he
+was shown into a small reception room by a maid, and there he waited for
+a full half hour. At the end of that time he heard a discreet rustle of
+garments in the distance, and a moment later, became aware of a cold stare
+from the doorway. Mrs. Endicott in an elaborate morning frock was surveying
+him fixedly through a jewelled lorgnette, her chin tilted contemptuously,
+and an expression of supreme scorn upon her handsome features. Woman of the
+world that she was, she must have noted the grace of his every movement as
+he rose with his habitual courtesy to greet her. Yet for some reason this
+only seemed to increase her dislike.
+
+There was no welcoming hand held out in response to his good morning, and
+no answering smile displaced the severity of the woman's expression as she
+stood confronting the boy, slowly paralyzing him with her glance. Not a
+word did she utter. She could convey her deepest meaning without words when
+she chose.
+
+But Michael was a lad of great self-control, and keen logical mind. He saw
+no reason for the woman's attitude of rebuke, and concluded he must be
+mistaken in it. Rallying his smile once more he asked:
+
+"Is Miss Starr ready to ride, or have I come too early?"
+
+Again the silence became impressive as the cold eyes looked him through,
+before the thin lips opened.
+
+"My daughter is not ready to ride--with YOU, this morning or at any other
+time!"
+
+"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said Michael now deeply astonished, and utterly
+unable to fathom the woman's strange manner. "Have I misunderstood? I
+thought she asked me to ride with her this morning. May I see her, please?"
+
+"No, you may not see Miss Endicott!" said the cold voice. "And I have
+come down to tell you that I consider your coming here at all a great
+impertinence. Certainly my husband has fully discharged any obligations for
+the slight service he is pleased to assume that you rendered a good many
+years ago. I have always had my doubts as to whether you did not do more
+harm than good at that time. Of course you were only a child and it was
+impossible that you should have done any very heroic thing at that age. In
+all probability if you had kept out of things the trouble never would have
+happened, and your meddling simply gave you a wound and a soft bed for
+a while. In my opinion you have had far more done for you than you ever
+deserved, and I want you to understand that so far as my daughter is
+concerned the obligation is discharged."
+
+Michael had stood immovable while the cruel woman uttered her harangue, his
+eyes growing wide with wonder and dark with a kind of manly shame for her
+as she went on. When she paused for a moment she saw his face was white and
+still like a statue, but there was something in the depth of his eyes that
+held her in check.
+
+With the utmost calm, and deference, although his voice rang with honest
+indignation, Michael spoke:
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mrs. Endicott," he said, his tone clear and
+attention-demanding, "I have never felt that there was the slightest
+obligation resting upon any of this family for the trifling matter that
+occurred when, as you say, I was a child. I feel that the obligation is
+entirely the other way, of course, but I cannot understand what you mean.
+How is my coming here at Mr. Endicott's invitation an impertinence?"
+
+The woman looked at him contemptuously as though it were scarcely worth the
+trouble to answer him, yet there was something about him that demanded an
+answer.
+
+"I suppose you are ignorant then," she answered cuttingly, "as you seem to
+be honest. I will explain. You are not fit company for my daughter. It is
+strange that you do not see that for yourself! A child of the slums, with
+nothing but shame and disgrace for an inheritance, and brought up a pauper!
+How could you expect to associate on a level with a gentleman's daughter?
+If you have any respect for her whatever you should understand that it is
+not for such as you to presume to call upon her and take her out riding. It
+is commendable in you of course to have improved what opportunities have
+been given you, but it is the height of ingratitude in a dependent to
+presume upon kindness and take on the airs of an equal, and you might as
+well understand first as last that you cannot do it. I simply will not have
+you here. Do you understand?"
+
+Michael stood as if rooted to the floor, horror and dismay growing in his
+eyes; and stupor trickling through his veins. For a minute he stood after
+she had ceased speaking, as though the full meaning of her words had been
+slow to reach his consciousness. Yet outwardly his face was calm, and only
+his eyes had seemed to change and widen and suffer as she spoke. Finally
+his voice came to him:
+
+"Madam, I did not know," he said in a stricken voice. "As you say, I am
+ignorant." Then lifting his head with that fine motion of challenge to
+the world that was characteristic of him whenever he had to face a hard
+situation, his voice rang clear and undaunted:
+
+"Madam, I beg your pardon. I shall not offend this way again. It was
+because I did not understand. I would not hurt your daughter in any way,
+for she has been the only beautiful thing that ever came into my life. But
+I will never trouble her again."
+
+The bow with which he left her and marched past her into the hall and out
+of the great door where once his boy life had been freely laid down for her
+child, could have been no more gracefully or dramatically effected if he
+had been some great actor. It was natural, it was full of dignity and
+reproach, and it left the lady feeling smaller and meaner than she had ever
+felt in all of her rose-colored, velvet-lined existence. Somehow all the
+contempt she had purposely prepared for the crushing of the lad, he had
+suddenly flung from him as a hated garment and walked from her presence,
+leaving it wrapped about herself.
+
+"Well, really!" she gasped at last when she realized that he was gone and
+her eloquence not half finished, "Well, really! What right had he to go
+away like that without my permission. Impertinent to the end! One would
+suppose he was a grand Duke. Such airs! I always told Delevan it was a
+mistake to educate the masses. They simply don't know their place and will
+not keep it."
+
+Nevertheless, the selfish woman was much shaken. Michael had made her feel
+somehow as if she had insulted a saint or a supernal being. She could not
+forget how the light had sifted through his wonderful hair and glinted
+through the depths of his great eyes, as he spoke those last words, and she
+resented the ease with which he had left her presence. It had been too much
+like the going of a victor, and not like one crushed back into his natural
+place. She was cross all day in consequence.
+
+Starr meanwhile was lingering upstairs waiting for Michael. She had been
+purposely kept busy in a distant room at the back of the house by her
+mother, and was not told of his coming. As an hour went by beyond the
+appointed time she grew restless and disappointed; and then annoyed and
+almost angry that he should have so easily forgotten her; but she did
+not tell her mother, and the old Scotch nurse who would have been her
+confidante had been sent on an errand to another part of the city.
+
+Thus, as the days went by, and Michael came no more to the house, the girl
+grew to think he did not want to come, and her slight disappointment and
+mortification were succeeded by a haughty resentment, for her mother's
+teaching had not been without some result in her character.
+
+Michael had gone into the door of the Endicott mansion a boy with a light
+heart and a happy vision of the future. He came out from there an hour
+later, a man, with a heavy burden on his heart, and a blank vision of the
+future. So much had the woman wrought.
+
+As he walked from the house his bright head drooped, and his spirit was
+troubled within him. He went as one in a terrible dream. His face had the
+look of an angel newly turned out of paradise and for no fault of his own;
+an angel who bowed to the Supreme mandate, but whose life was crushed
+within him. People looked at him strangely, and wondered as they passed
+him. It was as if Sorrow were embodied suddenly, and looking through
+eyes intended for Love. For the first time Michael, beloved of all his
+companions for his royal unselfishness, was thinking of himself.
+
+Yet even so there was no selfishness in his thought. It was only as if that
+which had always given him life and the breath of gladness had suddenly
+been withdrawn from him, and left him panting, gasping in a wide and
+unexpected emptiness.
+
+Somehow he found his way to his room and locked the door.
+
+Then the great spirit gave way and he flung himself upon the bed in supreme
+exhaustion. He seemed not to have another atom of strength left wherewith,
+to move or think or even breathe consciously. All his physical powers
+had oozed away and deserted him, now in this great crisis when life's
+foundations were shaken to their depths and nothing seemed to be any more.
+He could not think it over or find a way out of the horror, he could only
+lie and suffer it, fact by fact, as it came and menaced him, slowly,
+cruelly throughout that length of day.
+
+Gradually it became distinct and separated itself into thoughts so that he
+could follow it, as if it were the separate parts of some great dragon come
+to twine its coils about him and claw and crush and strangle the soul of
+him.
+
+First, there was the fact like a great knife which seemed to have severed
+soul from body, the fact that he might not see Starr, or have aught to do
+with her any more. So deeply had this interdiction taken hold upon him that
+it seemed to him in his agitation he might no longer even think of her.
+
+Next, following in stern and logical sequence, came the reason for this
+severing of soul from all it knew and loved; the fact of his lowly birth.
+Coming as it did, out of the blue of a trustful life that had never
+questioned much about his origin but had sunnily taken life as a gift,
+and thought little about self; with the bluntness and directness of an
+un-lovingkindness, it had seemed to cut and back in every direction, all
+that was left of either soul or body, so that there came no hope of ever
+catching things together again.
+
+That was the way it came over and over again as the boy without a friend in
+the whole wide world to whom he could turn in his first great trouble, lay
+and took it.
+
+Gradually out of the blackness he began to think a little; think back to
+his own beginning. Who was he? What was he? For the first time in his life,
+though he knew life more than most of the boys with whom he had associated,
+the thought of shame in connection with his own birth came to him, and
+burrowed and scorched its way into his soul.
+
+He might have thought of such a possibility before perhaps, had not his
+very youngest years been hedged about by a beautiful fancy that sprang from
+the brain of an old Irish woman in the slums, whose heart was wide as her
+ways were devious, and who said one day when little Mikky had run her an
+errand, "Shure, an' then Mikky, yer an angel sthraight frum hiven an' no
+misthake. Yer no jest humans like the rist av us; ye must av dhropped doon
+frum the skoy." And from that it had gone forth that Mikky was the child of
+the sky, and that was why no one knew who were his parents.
+
+The bit of a fancy had guarded the boy's weird babyhood, and influenced
+more than he knew his own thought of existence, until life grew too full to
+think much on it.
+
+Out of the darkness and murk of the slums the soul of Mikky had climbed
+high, and his ambitions reached up to the limitless blue above him. It had
+never occurred to him once that there might be an embargo put upon his
+upward movements. He had taken all others to be as free hearted and
+generous as himself. Heir of all things, he had breathed the atmosphere of
+culture as though it were his right. Now, he suddenly saw that he had no
+business climbing. He had been seized just as he was about to mount a
+glorious height from which he was sure other heights were visible, when a
+rude hand had brushed him back and dropped him as though he had been some
+crawling reptile, down, down, down, at the very bottom of things. And the
+worst of all was that he might not climb back. He might look up, he might
+know the way up again, but the honor in him--the only bit of the heights he
+had carried back to the foot with him--forbade him to climb to the dizzy
+heights of glory, for they belonged to others: those whom fortune favored,
+and on whose escutcheon there was no taint of shame.
+
+And why should it be that some souls should be more favored than others?
+What had he, for instance, to do with his birth? He would not have chosen
+shame, if shame there was. Yet shame or not he was branded with it for life
+because his origin was enveloped in mystery. The natural conclusion was
+that sin had had its part.
+
+Then through the boy's mind there tumbled a confusion of questions all more
+or less unanswerable, in the midst of which he slept.
+
+He seemed to have wandered out into the open again with the pines he loved
+above him, and underneath the springy needles with their slippery resinous
+softness; and he lay looking up into the changeless blue that covered all
+the heights, asking all the tumultuous questions that throbbed through his
+heart, asking them of God.
+
+Silently the noises of the city slunk away and dropped into the ceaseless
+calm of the southland he had left. The breeze fanned his cheek, the
+pines whispered, and a rippling bird song touched his soul with peace. A
+quietness came down upon his troubled spirit, and he was satisfied to take
+the burden that had been laid him and to bear it greatly. The peace was
+upon him when he awoke, far into the next morning.
+
+The hot June sun streamed into his stuffy room and fell aslant the bed. He
+was sodden and heavy with the heat and the oppression of his garments. His
+head ached, and he felt as nearly ill as he had ever felt in his life. The
+spectre of the day before confronted him in all its torturing baldness, but
+he faced it now and looked it squarely in the eyes. It was not conquered
+yet, not by any means. The sharp pain of its newness was just as great, and
+the deep conviction was still there that it was because of wrong that this
+burden was laid upon him, but there was an adjustment of his soul to the
+inevitable that there had not been at first.
+
+The boy lay still for a few minutes looking out upon a new life in which
+everything had to be readjusted to the idea of himself and his new
+limitations. Heretofore in his mind there had been no height that was not
+his for the climbing. Now, the heights were his, but he would not climb
+because the heights themselves might be marred by his presence. It was
+wrong, it was unfair, that things should be so; but they were so, and as
+long as Sin and Wrong were in the world they would be so.
+
+He must look upon life as he had looked upon every contest through his
+education. There were always things to be borne, hard things, but that only
+made the conquest greater. He must face this thing and win.
+
+And what had he lost that had been his before? Not the beautiful girl who
+had been the idol of his heart all these years. She was still there, alive
+and well, and more beautiful than ever. His devotion might yet stand
+between her and harm if need arose. True, he had lost the hope of
+companionship with her, but that had been the growth of a day. He had never
+had much of it before, nor expected it when he came North. It would have
+been a glory and a joy beyond expression, but one could live without those
+things and be true. There was some reason for it all somewhere in the
+infinite he was sure.
+
+It was not like the ordinary boy to philosophize in this way, but Michael
+had never been an ordinary boy. Ever his soul had been open to the
+greatness of the universe and sunny toward the most trying surroundings. He
+had come out of the hardest struggle his soul had yet met, but he had come
+out a man. There were lines about his pleasant mouth that had not been
+there the day before, which spoke of strength and self-control. There were
+new depths in his eyes as of one who had looked down, and seen things
+unspeakable, having to number himself with the lowly.
+
+A new thought came to him while he lay there trying to take in the change
+that had come to him. The thought of his childhood companions, the little
+waifs like himself who came from the offscourings of the earth. They had
+loved him he knew. He recalled slowly, laboriously, little incidents from
+his early history. They were dim and uncertain, many of them, but little
+kindnesses stood out. A bad out on his foot once and how Buck had bathed it
+and bound it up in dirty rags, doing double duty with the newspapers for
+several days to save his friend from stepping. There was a bitter cold
+night way back as far as he could remember when he had had bad luck, and
+came among the others supperless and almost freezing. Buck had shared a
+crust and found a warm boiler-room where they crawled out of sight and
+slept. There were other incidents, still more blurred in his memory, but
+enough to recall how loyal the whole little gang had been to him. He
+saw once more their faces when they heard he was going away to college;
+blanched with horror at the separation, lighting with pleasure when he
+promised to return!
+
+The years, how they had changed and separated! Where were they, these who
+really belonged to him; who were his rightful companions? What had the
+years done to them? And he had a duty toward them unperformed. How was it
+that he had been in the city all these hours and not even thought of going
+to look for those loyal souls who had stood by him so faithfully when
+they were all mere babies? He must go at once. He had lost his head over
+attempting to reach things that were not for him, and this shock had come
+to set him straight.
+
+Gravely he rose at last, these thoughts surging through his brain.
+
+The heat, the stifling air of the room, his recent struggling and the
+exhausting stupor made him reel dizzily as he got up, but his mettle was up
+now and he set his lips and went about making himself neat. He longed for a
+dip in the crystal waters of the little lake at college. The tiny wash-bowl
+of his room proved a poor substitute with its tepid water and diminutive
+towel.
+
+He went out and breakfasted carefully as if it were a duty, and then, with
+his map in his pocket, started out to find his old haunts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Thirteen years in New York had brought many changes. Some of the
+well-remembered landmarks were gone and new buildings in their places. A
+prosperous looking saloon quite palatial in its entrance marked the corner
+where he used to sell papers. It used to be a corner grocery store.
+Saloons! Always and everywhere there were saloons! Michael looked at them
+wonderingly. He had quite forgotten them in his exile, for the college
+influence had barred them out from its vicinity.
+
+The boy Mikky had been familiar enough with saloons, looking upon them as a
+necessary evil, where drinking fathers spent the money that ought to have
+bought their children food. He had been in and out of them commonly enough
+selling his papers, warming his feet, and getting a crust now and then from
+an uneaten bit on the lunch counter. Sometimes there had been glasses to
+drain, but Mikky with his observing eyes had early decided that he would
+have none of the stuff that sent men home to curse their little children.
+
+College influence, while there had been little said on the subject, had
+filled the boy with horror for saloons and drunkards. He stood appalled
+now as he turned at last into an alley where familiar objects, doorsteps,
+turnings, cellars, met his gaze, with grog shops all along the way and
+sentinelling every corner.
+
+A strange feeling came over him as memory stirred by long-forgotten sights
+awoke. Was this really the place, and was that opening beyond the third
+steps the very blind alley where Janie used to live? Things were so much
+dirtier, so much, worse in every way than he remembered them.
+
+He hurried on, not noticing the attention he was attracting from the
+wretched little children in the gutters, though he scanned them all
+eagerly, hurriedly, with the, wild idea that Buck and the rest might be
+among them.
+
+Yes, the alley was there, dark and ill-smelling as ever, and in its dim
+recesses on a dirty step a woman's figure hunched; a figure he knew at once
+that he had seen before and in that very spot. Who was she? What had they
+called her? Sally? Aunt Sal?
+
+He hurried up to where she sat looking curiously, apathetically at him; her
+gray hair straggling down on her dirty cotton frock open at the neck over
+shrivelled yellow skin; soiled old hands hanging carelessly over slatternly
+garments; stockingless feet stuck into a great tattered pair of men's
+shoes. Nothing seemed changed since he saw her last save that the hair had
+been black then, and the skin not so wrinkled. Aunt Sally had been good
+natured always, even when she was drunk; her husband, when he came home was
+always drunk also, but never good natured. These things came back to the
+boy as he stood looking down at the wreck of a woman before him.
+
+The bleary eyes looked up unknowing, half resentful of his intrusion.
+
+"Aunt Sally!" impulsively cried the boyish voice. "Aren't you Aunt Sally?"
+
+The woman looked stupidly surprised.
+
+"I be," she said thickly, "but wot's that to yous? I beant no hant o'
+yourn."
+
+"Don't you remember Mikky?" he asked almost anxiously, for now the feeling
+had seized him that he must make her remember. He must find out if he could
+whether anything was known of his origin. Perhaps she could help him.
+Perhaps, after all, he might be able to trace his family, and find at least
+no disgrace upon him.
+
+"Mikky!" the woman repeated dully. She shook her head.
+
+"Mikky!" she said again stolidly, "Wot's Mikky?"
+
+"Don't you remember Mikky the little boy that sold papers and brought you
+water sometimes? Once you gave me a drink of soup from your kettle. Think!"
+
+A dim perception came into the sodden eyes.
+
+"Thur wus a Mikky long ago," she mused. "He had hair like a h'angel, bless
+the sweet chile; but he got shot an' never come back. That war long ago."
+
+Michael took off his hat and the little light in the dark alley seemed to
+catch and tangle in the gleam of his hair.
+
+The old woman started as though she had seen a vision.
+
+"The saints presarve us!" she cried aghast, shrinking back into her doorway
+with raised hands, "an' who be yez? Yeh looks enough like the b'y to be the
+father of 'im. He'd hair loike the verra sunshine itself. Who be yez? Spake
+quick. Be ye man, b'y, er angel?"
+
+There was something in the woman's tone that went to the heart of the
+lonely boy, even while he recoiled from the repulsive creature before him.
+
+"I am just Mikky, the boy, grown a little older," he said gently, "and I've
+come back to see the place where I used to live, and find the people I used
+to know."
+
+"Y've lost yer way thin fer shure!" said the woman slightly recovering her
+equilibrium. "The loikes uv yous nivver lived in dis place; fer ef yous
+ain't angel you's gintulmun; an' no gintulmun ivver cum from the loikes o'
+this. An' besoides, the b'y Mikky, I tel'd yez, was shot an' nivver comed
+back no more. He's loikely up wid de angels where he b'longs."
+
+"Yes, I was shot," said Michael, "but I wasn't killed. A good man sent me
+to college, and I've just graduated and come back to look up my friends."
+
+"Frinds, is it, ye'll be afther a findin'? Thin ye'd bist look ilsewhar,
+fer thur's no one in this alley fit to be frinds with the loikes uv you. Ef
+that's wot they does with b'ys at co-lidge a pity 'tis more uv um can't git
+shot an' go there. But ef all yous tell is thrue, moi advice to yez is,
+juist bate it as hoird as ivver yez kin out'n yere, an' don't yez nivver
+set oies on this alley agin. Ye'd better stay to co-lidge all the days uv
+yer loife than set fut here agin, fer juist let 'em got holt uv yez an'
+they'll spile the pretty face uv ye. Look thar!" she pointed tragically
+toward a wreck of humanity that reeled into the alley just then. "Would
+yez loike to be loike that? My mon come home loike that ivvery day of his
+loife, rist his bones, an' he nivver knowed whin he died."
+
+Maudlin tears rolled down the poor creature's cheeks, for they could be no
+tears of affection. Her man's departure from this life could have been
+but a relief. Michael recoiled from the sight with a sickening sadness.
+Nevertheless he meant to find out if this woman knew aught of his old
+friends, or of his origin. He rallied his forces to answer her.
+
+"I don't have to be like that," he said, "I've come down to look up my
+friends I tell you, and I want you to tell me if you know anything about my
+parents. Did you ever hear anything about me? Did anybody know who I was or
+how I came to be here?"
+
+The old woman looked at him only half comprehending, and tried to gather
+her scattered faculties, but she shook her grizzled head hopelessly.
+
+"I ain't niver laid oies on yea before, an' how cud I know whar yez cum
+from, ner how yez cam to be here?" she answered.
+
+He perceived that it would require patience to extract information from
+this source.
+
+"Try to think," he said more gently. "Can you remember if anyone ever
+belonged to the little boy they called Mikky? Was there ever any mother or
+father, or--anybody that belonged to him at all."
+
+Again, she shook her head.
+
+"Niver as Oi knows on. They said he just comed a wee babby to the coourt
+a wanderin' with the other childer, with scarce a rag to his back, an' a
+smile on him like the arch-angel, and some said as how he niver had no
+father ner mother, but dthrapped sthraight frum the place where de angels
+live."
+
+"But did no one take care of him, or ever try to find out about him?"
+questioned Michael wistfully.
+
+"Foind out, is it? Whist! An' who would tak toime to foind out whin ther's
+so miny uv their own. Mikky was allus welcome to a bite an' a sup ef any uv
+us had it by. There wuz old Granny Bane with the rheumatiks. She gave him a
+bed an' a bite now an' agin, till she died, an afther that he made out to
+shift fer hisse'f. He was a moighty indepindint babby."
+
+"But had he no other name? Mikky what? What was his whole name?"
+pursued Michael with an eagerness that could not give up the sought-for
+information.
+
+The old woman only stared stupidly.
+
+"Didn't he have any other name?" There was almost despair in his tone.
+
+Another shake of the head.
+
+"Juist Mikky!" she said and her eyes grew dull once more.
+
+"Can you tell me if there are any other people living here now that used to
+know Mikky? Are there any other men or women who might remember?"
+
+"How kin Oi tell?" snarled the woman impatiently. "Oi can't be bothered."
+
+Michael stood in troubled silence and the woman turned her head to watch a
+neighbor coming down the street with a basket in her hand. It would seem
+that her visitor interested her no longer. She called out some rough,
+ribaldry to the woman who glanced up fiercely and deigned no further reply.
+Then Michael tried again.
+
+"Could you tell me of the boys who used to go with Mikky?"
+
+"No, Oi can't," she answered crossly, "Oi can't be bothered. Oi don't know
+who they was."
+
+"There was Jimmie and Sam and Bobs and Buck. Surely you remember Buck, and
+little Janie. Janie who died after Mikky went away?"
+
+The bleared eyes turned full upon him again.
+
+"Janie? Fine Oi remimber Janie. They had a white hurse to her, foiner'n any
+iver cum to the coourt before. The b'ys stayed up two noights selling to
+git the money fur it, an' Buck he stayed stiddy while she was aloive. Pity
+she doied."
+
+"Where is Buck?" demanded Michael with a sudden twinging of his heart
+strings that seemed to bring back the old love and loyalty to his friend.
+Buck had needed him perhaps all these years and he had not known.
+
+"That's whot the _po_lice would like fer yez to answer, I'm thinkin'!"
+laughed old Sal. "They wanted him bad fer breakin' into a house an' mos'
+killin' the lady an' gittin' aff wid de jewl'ry. He beat it dat noight an'
+ain't none o' us seen him these two year. He were a slick one, he were
+awful smart at breakin' an' stealin'. Mebbe Jimmie knows, but Jimmie, he's
+in jail, serving his time fer shootin' a man in the hand durin' a dhrunken
+fight. Jimmie, he's no good. Never wuz. He's jest like his foither. Bobs,
+he got both legs cut aff, bein' runned over by a big truck, and he doied in
+the horspittle. Bobs he were better dead. He'd uv gone loike the rist. Sam,
+he's round these parts mostly nights. Ye'll hev to come at noight ef yez
+want to see him. Mebbe he knows more 'bout Buck'n he'll tell."
+
+Sick at heart Michael put question, after question but no more information
+was forthcoming and the old woman showed signs of impatience again.
+Carefully noting what she said about Sam and getting a few facts as to the
+best time and place to find him Michael turned and walked sadly out of the
+alley. He did not see the alert eyes of old Sal following him, nor the keen
+expression of her face as she stretched her neck to see which way he turned
+as he left the alley. As soon as he was out of sight she shuffled down
+from her doorstep to the corner and peered after him through the morning
+sunshine. Then she went slowly, thoughtfully back to her doorstep.
+
+"Now whut in the divil could he be a wantin' wid Buck an' Sammie?" she
+muttered to herself. "All that story 'bout his bein' Mikky was puttin' it
+on my eye, I'll giv warnin' to Sammie this night, an' ef Buck's in these
+pairts he better git out west some'res. The _po_lice uv got onto 'im. But
+hoiwiver did they know he knowed Mikky? Poor little angel Mikky! I guv him
+the shtraight about Bobs an' Jimmie, fer they wuz beyant his troublin' but
+he'll niver foind Sammie from the directin' I sayed."
+
+Michael, sorrowing, horror-filled, conscience-stricken, took his way to a
+restaurant and ate his dinner, thinking meanwhile what he could do for
+the boys. Could he perhaps visit Jimmie in prison and make his life more
+comfortable in little ways? Could he plan something for him when he should
+come out? Could he help Sam? The old woman had said little about Sam's
+condition. Michael thought he might likely by this time have built up a
+nice little business for himself. Perhaps he had a prosperous news stand in
+some frequented place. He looked forward eagerly to meeting him again. Sam
+had always been a silent child dependent on the rest, but he was one of the
+little gang and Michael's heart warmed toward his former comrade. It could
+not be that he would find him so loathsome and repulsive as the old woman
+Sal. She made him heart-sick. Just to think of drinking soup from her dirty
+kettle! How could he have done it? And yet, he knew no better life then,
+and he was hungry, and a little child.
+
+So Michael mused, and all the time with a great heart-hunger to know what
+had become of Buck. Could he and Sam together plan some way to find Buck
+and help him out of his trouble? How could Buck have done anything so
+dreadful? And yet even as he thought it he remembered that "pinching" had
+not been a crime in his childhood days, not unless one was found out. How
+had these principles, or lack of principles been replaced gradually in his
+own life without his realizing it at all? It was all strange and wonderful.
+Practically now he, Michael, had been made into a new creature since he
+left New York, and so gradually, and pleasantly that he had not at all
+realized the change that was going on in him.
+
+Yet as he thought and marvelled there shot through him a thought like a
+pang, that perhaps after all it had not been a good thing, this making him
+into a new creature, with new desires and aims and hopes that could never
+be fulfilled. Perhaps he would have been happier, better off, if he had
+never been taken out of that environment and brought to appreciate so
+keenly another one where he did not belong, and could never stay, since
+this old environment was the one where he must stay whether he would or no.
+He put the thought from him as unworthy at once, yet the sharpness of the
+pang lingered and with it a vision of Starr's vivid face as he had seen her
+two nights before in her father's home, before he knew that the door of
+that home was shut upon him forever.
+
+Michael passed the day in idly wandering about the city trying to piece
+together his old knowledge, and the new, and know the city in which he had
+come to dwell.
+
+It was nearing midnight, when Michael, by the advice of old Sal, and
+utterly fearless in his ignorance, entered the court where his babyhood had
+been spent.
+
+The alley was dark and murky with the humidity of the summer night; but
+unlike the morning hours it was alive with a writhing, chattering, fighting
+mass of humanity. Doorways were overflowing. The narrow alley itself seemed
+fairly thronging with noisy, unhappy men and women. Hoarse laughs mingled
+with rough cursing, shot through with an occasional scream. Stifling odors
+lurked in cellar doorways and struck one full in the face unawares. Curses
+seemed to be the setting for all conversation whether angry or jolly.
+Babies tumbled in the gutter and older children fought over some scrap of
+garbage.
+
+Appalled, Michael halted and almost turned back. Then, remembering that
+this was where he had come from,--where he belonged,--and that his duty,
+his obligation, was to find hie friends, he went steadily forward.
+
+There sat old Sal, a belligerent gleam in her small sodden eyes. Four men
+on a step opposite, with a candle stood between them, were playing cards.
+Sal muttered a word as Michael approached and the candle was suddenly
+extinguished. It looked as if one had carelessly knocked it down to the
+pavement, but the glare nickered into darkness and Michael could no longer
+see the men's faces. He had wondered if one of them was Sam. But when he
+rubbed his eyes and looked again in the darkness the four men were gone and
+the step was occupied by two children holding a sleeping baby between them
+and staring at him in open mouthed admiration.
+
+The flickering weird light of the distant street lamps, the noise and
+confusion, the odors and curses filled him anew with a desire to flee, but
+he would not let himself turn back. Never had Michael turned from anything
+that was his duty from fear or dislike of anything.
+
+He tried to enter into conversation with old Sal again, but she would have
+none of him. She had taken "a wee drapth" and was alert and suspicious. In
+fact, the whole alley was on the alert for this elegant stranger who was
+none of theirs, and who of course could have come but to spy on some one.
+He wanted Sam, therefore Sam was hidden well and at that moment playing a
+crafty game in the back of a cellar on the top of an old beer barrel, by
+the light of a wavering candle; well guarded by sentinels all along
+the difficult way. Michael could have no more found him under those
+circumstances than he could have hoped to find a needle in a haystack the
+size of the whole city of New York.
+
+He wandered for two hours back and forth through the alley seeing sights
+long since forgotten, hearing words unspeakable; following out this and
+that suggestion of the interested bystanders; always coming back without
+finding Sam. He had not yet comprehended the fact that he was not intended
+to find Sam. He had taken these people into his confidence just as he had
+always taken everyone into his confidence, and they were playing him false.
+If they had been the dwellers on Fifth Avenue he would not have expected
+them to be interested in him and his plans and desires; but these were his
+very own people, at least the "ownest" he had in the world, and among them
+he had once gone freely, confidently. He saw no reason why they should have
+changed toward him, though he felt the antagonism in the atmosphere as the
+night wore on, even as he had felt it in the Endicott house the day before.
+
+Heartsick and baffled at last he took his way slowly, looking back many
+times, and leaving many messages for Sam. He felt as if he simply could
+not go hack to even so uncomfortable a bed an he called his own in his new
+lodgings without having found some clew to his old comrades.
+
+Standing at the corner of the alley opposite the flaunting lights of the
+saloon he looked back upon the swarming darkness of the alley and his heart
+filled with a great surging wave of pity, love, and sorrow. Almost at his
+feet in a dark shadow of a doorway a tiny white-faced boy crouched fast
+asleep on the stone threshold. It made him think of little Bobs, and his
+own barren childhood, and a mist came before his eyes as he looked up, up
+at the sky where the very stars seemed small and far away as if the sky had
+nothing to do with this part of the earth.
+
+"Oh, God!" he said under his breath. "Oh, God! I must do something for
+them!"
+
+And then as if the opportunity came with the prayer there reeled into view
+a little group of people, three or four men and a woman.
+
+The woman was talking in a high frightened voice and protesting. The men
+caught hold of her roughly, laughing and flinging out coarse jests. Then
+another man came stealing from the darkness of the alley and joined the
+group, seizing the woman by the shoulders and speaking words to her too
+vile for repetition. In terrible fear the girl turned, for Michael could
+see, now that she was nearer, that she was but a young girl, and that she
+was pretty. Instantly he thought of Starr and his whole soul rose in mighty
+wrath that any man should dare treat any girl as he had seen these do. Then
+the girl screamed and struggled to get away, crying: "It ain't true, it
+ain't true! Lem'me go! I won't go with you--"
+
+Instantly Michael was upon them, his powerful arms and supple body dashing
+the men right and left. And because of the suddenness of the attack coming
+from this most unexpected quarter,--for Michael had stood somewhat in the
+shadow--and because of the cowardliness of all bullies, for the moment he
+was able to prevail against all four, just long enough for the girl to slip
+like a wraith from their grasp and disappear into the shadows.
+
+Then when the men, dazed from surprise, though not seriously hurt,
+discovered that their prey was gone and that a stranger from the higher
+walks of life had frustrated their plans they fell upon him in their wrath.
+
+Michael brave always, and well trained in athletics, parried their blows
+for an instant, but the man, the one who had come from the shadows of
+the alley, whose face was evil, stole up behind and stabbed him in the
+shoulder. The sudden faintness that followed made him less capable of
+defending himself. He felt he was losing his senses, and the next blow from
+one of the men sent him reeling into the street where he fell heavily,
+striking his head against the curbing. There was a loud cry of murder from
+a woman's shrill voice, the padded rush of the villains into their holes,
+the distant ring of a policeman's whistle, and then all was quiet as a city
+night could be. Michael lay white and still with his face looking up to the
+faint pitying moon so far away and his beautiful hair wet with the blood
+that was flowing out on the pavement. There he lay on the edge of the world
+that was his own and would not own him. He had come to his own and his own
+received him not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Michael awoke in the hospital with a bandage around his head and a stinging
+pain in his shoulder whenever he tried to move.
+
+Back in his inner consciousness there sounded the last words he heard
+before he fell, but he could not connect them with anything at first:
+
+"Hit him again, Sam!"
+
+Those were the words. What did they mean? Had he heard them or merely
+dreamed them? And where was he?
+
+A glance about the long room with its rows of white beds each with an
+occupant answered his question. He closed his eyes again to be away from
+all those other eyes and think.
+
+Sam! He had been looking for Sam. Had Sam then come at last? Had Sam hit
+him? Had Sam recognized him? Or was it another Sam?
+
+But there was something queer the matter with his head, and he could not
+think. He put up his right arm to feel the bandage and the pain in his
+shoulder stung again. Somehow to his feverish fancy it seemed the sting of
+Mrs. Endicott's words to him. He dropped his hand feebly and the nurse gave
+him something in a spoon. Then half dreaming he fell asleep, with a vision
+of Starr's face as he had seen her last.
+
+Three weeks he lay upon that narrow white bed, and learned to face the
+battalion of eyes from the other narrow beds around him; learned to
+distinguish the quiet sounds of the marble lined room from the rumble of
+the unknown city without; and when the nimble was the loudest his heart
+ached with the thought of the alley and all the horrible sights and sounds
+that seemed written in letters of fire across his spirit.
+
+He learned to look upon the quiet monotonous world of ministrations as a
+haven from the world outside into which he must presently go; and in his
+weakened condition he shrank from the new life. It seemed to be so filled
+with disappointments and burdens of sorrow.
+
+But one night a man in his ward died and was carried, silent and covered
+from the room. Some of his last moaning utterances had reached the ears of
+his fellow sufferers with a swift vision of his life and his home, and his
+mortal agony for the past, now that he was leaving it all.
+
+That night Michael could not sleep, for the court and the alley, and the
+whole of sunken humanity were pressing upon his heart. It seemed to be his
+burden that he must give up all his life's hopes to bear. And there he had
+it out with himself and accepted whatever should come to be his duty.
+
+Meantime the wound on his head was healed, the golden halo had covered the
+scar, and the cut in his shoulder, which had been only a flesh, wound, was
+doing nicely. Michael, was allowed to sit up, and then to be about the room
+for a day or two.
+
+It was in those days of his sitting up when the sun which crept in for an
+hour a day reached and touched to flame his wonderful hair, that the other
+men of the ward began to notice him. He seemed to them all as somehow set
+apart from the rest; one who was lifted above what held them down to sin
+and earth. His countenance spoke of strength and self-control, the two
+things that many of those men lacked, either through constant sinning or
+through constant fighting with poverty and trouble, and so, as he began to
+get about they sent for him to come to their bedsides, and as they talked
+one and another of them poured out his separate tale of sorrow and woe,
+till Michael felt he could bear no more. He longed for power, great power
+to help; power to put these wretched men on their feet again to lead a new
+life, power to crush some of the demons in human form who were grinding
+them down to earth. Oh! for money and knowledge and authority!
+
+Here was a man who had lost both legs in a defective machine he was running
+in a factory. He was a skilled workman and had a wife and three little
+ones. But he was useless now at his trade. No one wanted a man with no
+legs. He might better be dead. Damages? No, there was no hope of that. He
+had accepted three hundred dollars to sign a release. He had to. His wife
+and children were starving and they must have the money then or perish.
+There was no other way. Besides, what hope had he in fighting a great
+corporation? He was a poor man, a stranger in this country, with no
+friends. The company had plenty who were willing to swear it was the man's
+own fault.
+
+Yonder was another who had tried to asphyxiate himself by turning on the
+gas in his wretched little boarding-house room because he had lost his
+position on account of ill health, and the firm wished to put a younger man
+in his place. He had almost succeeded in taking himself out of this life.
+
+Next him was one, horribly burned by molten metal which he had been
+compelled to carry without adequate precautions, because it was a cheaper
+method of handling the stuff and men cost less than machinery. You could
+always get more men.
+
+The man across from him was wasted away from insufficient food. He had been
+out of work for months, and what little money he could pick up in odd jobs
+had gone mostly to his wife and children.
+
+And so it was throughout the ward. On almost every life sin,--somebody's
+sin,--had left its mark. There were one or two cheery souls who, though
+poor, were blest with friends and a home of some kind and were looking
+forward to a speedy restoration; but these were the exception. Nearly all
+the others blamed someone else for their unhappy condition and in nearly
+every case someone else was undoubtedly to blame, even though in most cases
+each individual had been also somewhat responsible.
+
+All this Michael gradually learned, as he began his practical study of
+sociology. As he learned story after story, and began to formulate the
+facts of each he came to three conclusions: First, that there was not room
+enough in the city for these people to have a fair chance at the great and
+beautiful things of life. Second, that the people of the cities who had
+the good things were getting them all for themselves and cared not a straw
+whether the others went without. Third, that somebody ought to be doing
+something about it, and why not he?
+
+Of course it was absurd for a mere boy just out of college, with scarcely
+a cent to his name--and not a whole name to call his own--to think of
+attempting to attack the great problem of the people single-handed; but
+still he felt he was called to do it, and he meant to try.
+
+He hadn't an idea at this time whether anybody else had seen it just
+this way or not. He had read a little of city missions, and charitable
+enterprises, but they had scarcely reached his inner consciousness. His
+impression gathered from such desultory reading had been that the effort
+in that direction was sporadic and ineffective. And so, in his gigantic
+ignorance and egotism, yet with his exquisite sensitiveness to the inward
+call, Michael henceforth set himself to espouse the cause of the People.
+
+Was he not one of them? Had he not been born there that he might be one of
+them, and know what they had to suffer? Were they not his kindred so far as
+he had any kindred? Had he not been educated and brought into contact with
+higher things that he might know what these other human souls might be if
+they had the opportunity? If he had known a little more about the subject
+he would have added "and if they _would_." But he did not; he supposed all
+souls were as willing to be uplifted as he had been.
+
+Michael went out from the hospital feeling that his life work was before
+him. The solemn pledge he had taken as a little child to return and help
+his former companions became a voluntary pledge of his young manhood. He
+knew very little indeed about the matter, but he felt much, and he was
+determined to do, wherever the way opened. He had no doubt but that the way
+would open.
+
+"Now young man, take care of yourself," said the doctor in parting from
+his patient a few days later, "and for the land's sake keep away from back
+alleys at night. When you know a little more about New York you'll learn
+that it's best to keep just as far away from such places as possible. Don't
+go fooling around under the impression that you can convert any of those
+blackguards. They need to be blown up, every one of them, and the place
+obliterated. Mind, I say, keep away from them."
+
+Michael smiled and thanked the doctor, and walked unsteadily down the
+hospital steps on feet that were strangely wobbly for him. But Michael did
+not intend to obey the doctor. He had been turning the matter over in his
+mind and he had a plan. And that very night about ten o'clock he went back
+to the alley.
+
+Old Sal was sitting on her doorstep a little more intoxicated than the last
+time, and the young man's sudden appearance by her side startled her into
+an Irish howl.
+
+"The saints presarve us!" she cried tottering to her feet. "He's cum back
+to us agin, sure he has! There's no killin' him! He's an angel shure. B'ys
+rin! bate it! bate it! The angel's here agin!"
+
+There was a sound of scurrying feet and the place seemed to suddenly clear
+of the children that had been under foot. One or two scowling men, or
+curiously apathetic women in whose eyes the light of life had died and been
+left unburied, peered from dark doorways.
+
+Michael stood quietly until the howling of Sal had subsided, and then he
+spoke in a clear tone.
+
+"Can you tell if Sam has been around here to-night? Is he anywhere near
+here now?"
+
+There was no answer for a minute but some one growled out the information
+that he might and then he might not have been. Some one else said he had
+just gone away but they didn't know where. Michael perceived that it was a
+good deal as it had been before.
+
+"I have brought a message for him, a letter," he said, and he spoke so that
+anyone near-by might hear. "Will you give it to him when he comes. He will
+want to see it, I am sure. It is important. I think he will be glad to get
+it. It contains good news about an old friend of his."
+
+He held out the letter courteously to old Sal, and she looked down at its
+white crispness as though it had been a message from the lower regions sent
+to call her to judgment. A letter, white, square-cornered and clean, with
+clear, firm inscription, had never come within her gaze before. Old Sal
+had never learned to read. The writing meant nothing to her, but the whole
+letter represented a mystic communication from another world.
+
+Instinctively the neighbors gathered nearer to look at the letter, and Sal,
+seeing herself the centre of observation, reached forward a dirty hand
+wrapped in a corner of her apron, and took the envelope as though it had
+been hot, eyeing it all the while fearfully.
+
+Then with his easy bow and touching his hat to her as though she had been a
+queen, Michael turned and walked away out of the alley.
+
+Old Sal stood watching him, a kind of wistful wonder in her bleary eyes.
+No gentleman had ever tipped his hat to her, and no man had ever done her
+reverence. From her little childhood she had been brought up to forfeit the
+respect of men. Perhaps it had never entered her dull mind before that she
+might have been aught but what she was; and that men might have given her
+honor.
+
+The neighbors too were awed for the moment and stood watching in silence,
+till when Michael turned the corner out of sight, Sal exclaimed:
+
+"Now that's the angel, shure! No gintlemin would iver uv tipped his 'at to
+the loikes of Sal. Saints presarve us! That we should hev an angel in this
+alley!"
+
+When Michael reached his lodging he found that he was trembling so from
+weakness and excitement that he could scarcely drag himself up the three
+flights to his room. So had his splendid strength been reduced by trouble
+and the fever that came with his wounds.
+
+He lay down weakly and tried to think. Now he had done his best to find
+Sam. If Sam did not come in answer to his letter he must wait until he
+found him. He would not give up. So he fell asleep with the burden on his
+heart.
+
+The letter was as follows:
+
+"Dear Sam:
+
+"You can't have forgotten Mikky who slept with you in the boiler room, and
+with whom you shared your crusts. You remember I promised when I went away
+to college I would come back and try to make things better for you all? And
+now I have come and I am anxious to find the fellows and see what we can do
+together to make life better in the old alley and make up for some of the
+hard times when we were children. I have been down to the alley but can get
+no trace of you. I spent the best part of one night hunting you and then a
+slight accident put me in the hospital for a few days, but I am well now
+and am anxious to find you all. I want to talk over old times, and find out
+where Buck and Jim are; and hear all about Janie and little Bobs.
+
+"I am going to leave this letter with Aunt Sally, hoping she will give it
+to you. I have given my address below and should be glad to have you come
+and see me at my room, or if you would prefer I will meet you wherever you
+say, and we will go together and have something to eat to celebrate.
+
+"Hoping to hear from you very soon, I am as always,
+
+"Your brother and friend,
+
+"MIKKY.
+
+"Address, Michael Endicott,
+No ---- West 23rd St."
+
+A few days later a begrimed envelope addressed in pencil was brought to the
+door by the postman. Michael with sinking heart opened it. It read:
+
+"MiKY ef yo be reely hym cum to KelLys karner at 10 tumoroW nite. Ef you
+are mIK youz thee old whissel an doante bring no une wit yer Ef yO du I
+wunt be thar.
+
+"SAM."
+
+Michael seated on his lumpy bed puzzled this out, word by word, until he
+made fairly good sense of it. He was to go to Kelly's corner. How memory
+stirred at the words. Kelly's corner was beyond the first turn of the
+alley, it was at the extreme end of an alley within an alley, and had
+no outlet except through Kelly's saloon. Only the "gang" knew the name,
+"Kelly's Corner," for it was not really a corner at all only a sort of
+pocket or hiding place so entitled by Buck for his own and "de kids"
+private purpose. If Michael had been at all inclined to be a coward since
+his recent hard usage in the vicinity of the alley he would have kept
+away from Kelly's corner, for once in there with enemies, and alone, no
+policeman's club, nor hospital ambulance would ever come to help. The
+things that happened at Kelly's corner never got into the newspapers.
+
+Memory and instinct combined to make this perfectly dear to Michael's mind,
+and if he needed no other warning those words of the letter, "Don't bring
+no one with you. If you do, I won't be there," were sufficient to make him
+wise.
+
+Yet Michael never so much as thought of not keeping the appointment. His
+business was to find Sam, and it mattered as little to him now that danger
+stood in the way as it had the day when he flung his neglected little body
+in front of Starr Endicott and saved her from the assassin's bullet. He
+would go, of course, and go alone. Neither did it occur to him to take
+the ordinary precaution of leaving his name and whereabouts at the police
+station to be searched for in case he did not turn up in reasonable time.
+It was all in the day's work and Michael thought no more about the possible
+peril he was facing than he had thought of broken limbs and bloody noses
+the last hour before a football scrimmage.
+
+There was something else in the letter that interested Michael and stirred
+the old memories. That old whistle! Of course he had not forgotten that,
+although he had not used it much among his college companions. It was a
+strange, weird, penetrating sound, between a call and whistle. He and Buck
+had made it up between them. It was their old signal. When Michael went to
+college he had held it sacred as belonging strictly to his old friends,
+and never, unless by himself in the woods where none but the birds and the
+trees could hear, had he let its echoes ring. Sometimes he had flung it
+forth and startled the mocking birds, and once he had let it ring into the
+midst of his astonished comrades in Florida when he was hidden from their
+view and they knew not who had made the sound. He tried it now softly, and
+then louder and louder, until with sudden fear he stopped lest his landlady
+should happen to come up that way and think him insane. But undoubtedly he
+could give the old signal.
+
+The next night at precisely ten o'clock Michael's ringing step sounded down
+the alley; firm, decisive, secure. Such assurance must Daniel have worn as
+he faced the den of lions; and so went the three Hebrew children into the
+fiery furnace.
+
+"It's him! It's the angel!" whispered old Sal who was watching. "Oi tould
+yez he'd come fer shure!"
+
+"He's got his nerve with him!" murmured a girl with bold eyes and a coarse
+kind of beauty, as she drew further back into the shadow of the doorway.
+"He ain't comin' out again so pretty I guess. Not if Sam don't like. Mebbe
+he ain't comin' out 'tall!"
+
+"Angels has ways, me darlint!" chuckled Sal. "He'll come back al roight,
+ye'll see!"
+
+On walked Michael, down the alley to the narrow opening that to the
+uninitiated was not an opening between the buildings at all, and slipped in
+the old way. He had thought it all out in the night. He was sure he knew
+just how far beyond Sal's house it was; on into the fetid air of the close
+dark place, the air that struck him in the face like a hot, wet blanket as
+he kept on.
+
+It was very still all about when he reached the point known as Kelly's
+corner. It had not been so as he remembered it. It had been the place of
+plots, the hatching of murders and robberies. Had it so changed that it was
+still to-night? He stood for an instant hesitating. Should he wait a while,
+or knock on some door? Would it be any use to call?
+
+But the instinct of the slums was upon him again, his birthright. It seemed
+to drop upon him from the atmosphere, a sort of stealthy patience. He would
+wait. Something would come. He must do as he had done with the birds of the
+forest when he wished to watch their habits. He must stand still unafraid
+and show that he was harmless.
+
+So he stood three, perhaps five minutes, then softly at first and gradually
+growing clearer, he gave the call that he had given years before, a little
+barefoot, hungry child in that very spot many times.
+
+The echo died away. There was nothing to make him know that a group of
+curious alley-dwellers huddled at the mouth of the trap in which he stood,
+watching with eyes accustomed to the darkness, to see what would happen; to
+block his escape if escape should be attempted.
+
+Then out of the silence a sigh seemed to come, and out of the shadows one
+shadow unfolded itself and came forward till it stood beside him. Still
+Michael did not stir; but softly, through, half-open lips, breathed the
+signal once more.
+
+Sibilant, rougher, with a hint of menace as it issued forth the signal was
+answered this time, and with a thrill of wonder the mantle of the old life
+fell upon Michael once more. He was Mikky--only grown more wise. Almost the
+old vernacular came to his tongue.
+
+"Hi! Sam! That you?"
+
+The figure in the darkness seemed to stiffen with sudden attention. The
+voice was like, and yet not like the Mikky of old.
+
+"Wot yous want?" questioned a voice gruffly.
+
+"I want you, Sam. I want to see if you look as you used to, and I want to
+know about the boys. Can't we go where there's light and talk a little?
+I've been days hunting you. I've come back because I promised, you know.
+You expected me to come back some day, didn't you, Sam?"
+
+Michael was surprised to find how eager he was for the answer to this
+question.
+
+"Aw, what ye givin' us?" responded the suspicious Sam. "D'yous s'pose I
+b'lieve all that gag about yer comin' here to he'p we'uns? Wot would a guy
+like yous wid all dem togs an' all dem fine looks want wid us? Yous has got
+above us. Yous ain't no good to us no more."
+
+Sam scratched a match on his trousers and lit an old pipe that he held
+between his teeth, but as the match flared up and showed his own face a
+lowering brow, shifty eyes, a swarthy, unkempt visage, sullen and sly, the
+shifty eyes were not looking at the pipe but up at the face above him which
+shone out white and fine with its gold halo in the little gleam in the dark
+court. The watchers crowding at the opening of the passage saw his face,
+and almost fancied there were soft shadowy wings behind him. It was thus
+with old Sal's help that Michael got his name again, "The Angel." It was
+thus he became the "angel of the alley."
+
+"Sam!" he said, and his voice was very gentle, although he was perfectly
+conscious that behind him there were two more shadows of men and more might
+be lurking in the dark corners. "Sam, if you remember me you will know I
+couldn't forget; and I do care. I came back to find you. I've always meant
+to come, all the time I was in college. I've had it in mind to come back
+here and make some of the hard things easier for"--he hesitated, and--"for
+_us_ all."
+
+"How did yous figger yous was goin' to do that?" Sam asked, his little
+shifty eyes narrowing on Michael, as he purposely struck another match to
+watch the effect of his words.
+
+Then Michael's wonderful smile lit up his face, and Sam, however much he
+may have pretended to doubt, knew in his deepest heart that this was the
+same Mikky of old. There was no mistaking that smile.
+
+"I shall need you to help me in figuring that out, Sam. That's why I was so
+anxious to find you."
+
+A curious grunt from behind Michael warned him that the audience was being
+amused at the expense of Sam, Sam's brows were lowering.
+
+"Humph!" he said, ungraciously striking a third match just in time to watch
+Michael's face. "Where's yer pile?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Got the dough?"
+
+"Oh," said Michael comprehendingly, "no, I haven't got money, Sam. I've
+only my education."
+
+"An' wot good's it, I'd like to know. Tell me those?"
+
+"So much good that I can't tell it all in one short talk," answered Michael
+steadily. "We'll have to get better acquainted and then I hope I can make
+you understand how it has helped. Now tell me about the others. Where is
+Buck?"
+
+There was a dead silence.
+
+"It's hard to say!" at last muttered Sam irresponsibly.
+
+"Don't you know? Haven't you any kind of an idea, Sam? I'd so like to hunt
+him up."
+
+The question seemed to have produced a tensity in the very atmosphere,
+Michael felt it.
+
+"I might, an' then agin' I might not," answered Sam in that tone of his
+that barred the way for further questions.
+
+"Couldn't you and I find him and--and--help him, Sam? Aunt Sally said he
+was in trouble."
+
+Another match was scratched and held close to his face while the narrow
+eyes of Sam seemed to pierce his very soul before Sam answered with an ugly
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, he don't need none o' your help, you bet. He's lit out. You don't need
+to worry 'bout Buck, he kin take car' o' hisse'f every time."
+
+"But won't he come back sometime?"
+
+"Can't say. It's hard to tell," non-committally.
+
+"And Jim?" Michael's voice was sad.
+
+"Jim, he's doin' time," sullenly.
+
+"I'm sorry!" said Michael sadly, and a strange hush came about the dark
+group. Now why should this queer chap be sorry? No one else cared, unless
+it might be Jim, and Jim had got caught. It was nothing to them.
+
+"Now tell me about Janie--and little Bobs--" The questioner paused. His
+voice was very low.
+
+"Aw, cut it out!" snarled Sam irritably. "Don't come any high strikes on
+their account. They're dead an' you can't dig 'em up an' weep over 'em.
+Hustle up an' tell us wot yer wantin' to do."
+
+"Well, Sam," said Michael trying to ignore the natural repulsion he felt
+at the last words of his one-time friend, "suppose you take lunch with me
+to-morrow at twelve. Then we can talk over things and get back old times.
+I will tell you all about my college life and you must tell me all you are
+doing."
+
+Sam was silent from sheer astonishment. Take lunch! Never in his life had
+he been invited out to luncheon. Nor had he any desire for an invitation
+now.
+
+"Where?" he asked after a silence so long that Michael began to fear he was
+not going to answer at all.
+
+Michael named a place not far away. He had selected it that morning. It was
+clean, somewhat, yet not too clean. The fare was far from princely, but it
+would do, and the locality was none too respectable. Michael was enough
+of a slum child still to know that his guest would never go with him to a
+really respectable restaurant, moreover he would not have the wardrobe nor
+the manners. He waited Sam's answer breathlessly.
+
+Sam gave a queer little laugh as if taken off his guard. The place named
+was so entirely harmless, to his mind, and the whole matter of the
+invitation took on the form of a great joke.
+
+"Well, I might," he drawled indifferently. "I won't make no promises, but
+I might, an' then again I might not. It's jes' as it happens. Ef I ain't
+there by twelve sharp you needn't wait. Jes' go ahead an' eat. I wouldn't
+want to spoil yer digestion fer my movements."
+
+"I shall wait!" said Michael decidedly with his pleasant voice ringing
+clear with satisfaction. "You will come, Sam, I know you will. Good night!"
+
+And then he did a most extraordinary thing. He put out his hand, his clean,
+strong hand, warm and healthy and groping with the keenness of low, found
+the hardened grimy hand of his one-time companion, and gripped it in a
+hearty grasp.
+
+Sam started back with the instant suspicion of attack, and then stood
+shamedly still for an instant. The grip of that firm, strong hand, the
+touch of brotherhood, a touch such as had never come to his life before
+since he was a little child, completed the work that the smile had begun,
+and Sam knew that Mikky, the real Mikky was before him.
+
+Then Michael walked swiftly down that narrow passage,--at the opening of
+which, the human shadows scattered silently and fled, to watch from other
+furtive doorways,--down through the alley unmolested, and out into the
+street once more.
+
+"The saints presarve us! Wot did I tell yez?" whispered Sal. "It's the
+angel all right fer shure."
+
+"I wonder wot he done to Sam," murmured the girl. "He's got his nerve all
+right, he sure has. Ain't he beautiful!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+Michael went early to his lunch party. He was divided between wondering if
+his strange guest would put in an appearance at all; if he did, what he
+should talk about; and how he would pilot him through the embarrassing
+experience of the meal. One thing he was determined upon. He meant to find
+out if possible whether Sam knew anything about his, Michael's, origin.
+It was scarcely likely; and yet, Sam might have heard some talk by older
+people in the neighborhood. His one great longing was to find out and clear
+his name of shame if possible.
+
+There was another thing that troubled Michael. He was not sure that he
+would know Sam even supposing that he came. The glimpse he had caught
+the night before when the matches were struck was not particularly
+illuminating. He had a dim idea that Sam was below the medium height; with
+thin, sallow face; small, narrow eyes; a slouching gait; and a head that
+was not wide enough from front to back. He had a feeling that Sam had not
+room enough in his brain for seeing all that ought to be seen. Sam did not
+understand about education. Would he ever be able to make him understand?
+
+Sam came shuffling along ten minutes after twelve. His sense of dignity
+would not have allowed him to be on time. Besides, he wanted to see if
+Michael would wait as he had said. It was a part of the testing of Michael;
+not to prove if he were really Mikky, but to see what stuff he was made of,
+and how much he really had meant of what he said.
+
+Michael was there, standing anxiously outside the eating house. He did not
+enjoy the surroundings nor the attention he was attracting. He was too well
+dressed for that locality, but these were the oldest clothes he had. He
+would have considered them quite shabby at college. He was getting worried
+lest after all his plan had failed. Then Sam slouched along, his hat drawn
+down, his hands in his pockets, and wearing an air of indifference that
+almost amounted to effrontery. He greeted Michael as if there had been no
+previous arrangement and this were a chance meeting. There was nothing
+about his manner to show that he had purposely come late to put him to the
+test, but Michael knew intuitively it was so.
+
+"Shall we go in now?" said Michael smiling happily. He found he was really
+glad that Sam had come, repulsive in appearance though he was, hard of
+countenance and unfriendly in manner. He felt that he was getting on just a
+little in his great object of finding out and helping his old friends, and
+perhaps learning something more of his own history.
+
+"Aw, I donno's I care 'bout it!" drawled Sam, just as if he had not
+intended going in all the time, nor had been thinking of the "feed" all the
+morning in anticipation.
+
+"Yes, you better," said Michael putting a friendly hand on the others'
+shoulder. If he felt a repugnance to touching the tattered, greasy coat of
+his one-time friend, he controlled it, remembering how he had once worn
+garments far more tattered and filthy. The greatness of his desire to
+uplift made him forget everything else. It was the absorption of a supreme
+task that had come upon the boy to the exclusion of his own personal
+tastes.
+
+It was not that Michael was so filled with love for this miserable creature
+who used to be his friend, nor so desired to renew old associations after
+these long years of separation; it was the terrible need, the conditions
+of which had been called vividly to his experience, that appealed to his
+spirit like a call of authority to which he answered proudly because
+of what had once been done for him. It had come upon him without his
+knowledge, suddenly, with the revival of old scenes and memories, but as
+with all workers for humanity it had gone so deeply into his soul as to
+make him forget even that there was such a thing as sacrifice.
+
+They passed into the restaurant. Michael in his well-made clothing and with
+his strikingly handsome face and gold hair attracting at once every eye
+in the place: Sam with an insolent air of assurance to cover a sudden
+embarrassment of pride at the company he was in.
+
+Michael gave a generous order, and talked pleasantly as they waited. Sam
+sat in low-browed silence watching him furtively, almost disconcertingly.
+
+It was when they had reached the course of three kinds of pie and a dab
+of dirty looking, pink ice cream professing to be fresh strawberry, that
+Michael suddenly looked keenly at his guest and asked:
+
+"What are you doing now, Sam? In business for yourself?"
+
+Sam's eyes narrowed until they were almost eclipsed, though a keen steel
+glitter could be seen beneath the colorless lashes. A kind of mask,
+impenetrable as lead, seemed to have settled over his face, which had been
+gradually relaxing during the meal into a half indulgent grin of interest
+in his queer host.
+
+"Yas, I'm in business fer myself," he drawled at last after carefully
+scrutinizing the other's face to be sure there was no underlying motive for
+the question.
+
+"News-stand?" asked Michael.
+
+"Not eggs-act-ly!"
+
+"What line?"
+
+Sam finished his mince pie and began on the pumpkin before he answered.
+
+"Wal, ther's sev'ral!"
+
+"Is that so? Got more than one string to your bow? That's a good thing.
+You're better off than I am. I haven't looked around for a job yet. I
+thought I'd get at it to-morrow. You see I wanted to look you fellows up
+first before I got tied down to anything where I couldn't get off when I
+wanted to. Perhaps you can put me onto something. How about it?"
+
+It was characteristic of Michael that he had not once thought of going to
+Endicott for the position and help offered him, since the setting down
+he had received from Mrs. Endicott. The time appointed for his going to
+Endicott's office was long since passed. He had not even turned the matter
+over in his mind once since that awful night of agony and renunciation.
+Mrs. Endicott had told him that her husband "had done enough for him" and
+he realized that this was true. He would trouble him no more. Sometime
+perhaps the world would turn around so that he would have opportunity to
+repay Endicott's kindness that he might not repay in money, but until then
+Michael would keep out of his way. It was the one poor little rag of pride
+he allowed himself from the shattering of all his hopes.
+
+Sam narrowed his eyes and looked Michael through, then slowly widened them
+again, an expression of real interest coming into them.
+
+"Say! Do you mean it?" he asked doubtfully. "Be you straight goods? Would
+you come back into de gang an not snitch on us ner nothin'?"
+
+"I'm straight goods, Sam, and I won't snitch!" said Michael quickly. He
+knew that he could hope for no fellow's confidence if he "snitched."
+
+"Wal, say, I've a notion to tell yeh!"
+
+Sam attacked his ice cream contemplatively.
+
+"How would a bluff game strike you?" he asked suddenly as the last
+delectable mouthful of cream disappeared and he pulled the fresh cup of
+coffee toward him that the waiter had just set down.
+
+"What sort?" said Michael wondering what he was coming on in the way of
+revelation, but resolving not to be horrified at anything. Sam must not
+suspect until he could understand what a difference education had made in
+the way of looking at things.
+
+"Wal, there's diffrunt ways. Cripple's purty good. Foot all tied up in
+bloody rags, arm an' hand tied up, a couple o' old crutches. I could lend
+the clo'es. They'd be short fer yeh, but that'd be all the better gag. We
+cud swap an' I'd do the gen'lman act a while." He looked covetously at
+Michael's handsome brown tweeds--"Den you goes fom house to house, er you
+stands on de corner--"
+
+"Begging!" said Michael aghast. His eyes were on his plate and he was
+trying to control his voice, but something of his horror crept into his
+tones. Sam felt it and hastened on apologetically--
+
+"Er ef you want to go it one better, keep on yer good cloes an' have
+the asthma bad. I know a feller what'll teach you how, an' sell you the
+whistles to put in yer mouth. You've no notion how it works. You just go
+around in the subbubs tellin' thet you've only been out of the 'orspittal
+two days an' you walked all this way to get work an' couldn't get it, an'
+you want five cents to get back--see? Why, I know a feller--course he's
+been at it fer years an' he has his regular beats--folks don't seem to
+remember--and be can work the ground over 'bout once in six months er so,
+and he's made's high's thirty-eight dollars in a day at asthma work."
+
+Sam paused triumphant to see what effect the statement had on his friend,
+but Michael's face was toward his coffee cup.
+
+"Seems sort of small business for a man!" he said at last, his voice steady
+with control. "Don't believe I'd be good at that? Haven't you got something
+that's real _work_?"
+
+Sam's eyes narrowed.
+
+"Ef I thought you was up to it," he murmured. "You'd be great with that
+angel face o' yourn. Nobody'd ever suspect you. You could wear them clo'es
+too. But it's work all right, an' mighty resky. Ef I thought you was up
+to it--" He continued to look keenly at Michael, and Michael, with innate
+instinct felt his heart beat in discouraged thumps. What new deviltry was
+Sam about to propose?
+
+"You used to be game all right!" murmured Sam interrogatively. "You never
+used to scare easy--"
+
+"Wal, I'll tell you," in answer to Michael's questioning eyes which
+searched his little sharp wizened face--Michael was wondering if there was
+anything in that face to redeem it from utter repulsiveness.
+
+"You see it's a reg'ler business, an' you hev to learn, but I'd give you
+pinters, all you'd need to know, I'm pretty slick myself. There's tools to
+open things, an' you hev to be ready to 'xplain how you come thur an' jolly
+up a parlor maid per'aps. It's easy to hev made a mistake in the house, er
+be a gas man er a plumber wot the boss sent up to look at the pipes. But
+night work's best pay after you get onto things. Thur's houses where you
+ken lay your han's on things goin' into the thousands an' lots ov um easy
+to get rid of without anybody findin' out. There's Buck he used to be great
+at it. He taught all the gang. The day he lit out he bagged a bit o' glass
+wuth tree tousand dollars, 'sides a whole handful of fivers an' tens wot he
+found lyin' on a dressin' table pretty as you please. Buck he were a slick
+one at it. He'd be pleased to know you'd took up the work--"
+
+Sam paused and eyed Michael with the first friendly gleam he had shown in
+his eyes, and Michael, with his heart in a tumult of varied emotions, and
+the quick color flooding brow and cheek, tried to hold himself in check. He
+must not speak too hastily. Perhaps he had not understood Sam's meaning.
+
+"Where is Buck?" Michael looked Sam straight in the eye. The small pupils
+seemed to contract and shut out even his gaze.
+
+"They ain't never got a trace of Buck," he said evasively.
+
+"But don't you know?" There was something in Michael's look that demanded
+an answer.
+
+"I might an' I might not," responded Sam sullenly.
+
+Michael was still for several seconds watching Sam; each trying to
+understand the other.
+
+"Do you think he will come hack where I can see him?" he asked at length.
+
+"He might, an' he might not. 't depends. Ef you was in th' bizness he
+might. It's hard to say. 't depends."
+
+Michael watched Sam again thoughtfully.
+
+"Tell me more about the business," he said at last, his lips compressed,
+his brows drawn down into a frown of intensity.
+
+"Thur ain't much, more t'tell," said Sam, still sullen. "I ain't sure
+you're up to it?"
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Ain't sure you got de sand. You might turn faint and snitch." Sam leaned
+forward and spoke in low rapid sentences. "Wen we'd got a big haul, 'sposen
+you'd got into de house an' done de pinchin', and we got the stuff safe
+hid, an' you got tuk up? Would you snitch? Er would you take your pill like
+a man? That's what I'd want to be sure. Mikky would a' stood by the gang,
+but you--you've had a edicashun! They might go soft at college. I ain't
+much use fer edicated persons myself. But I'll give you a show ef you
+promise stiff not to snitch. We've got a big game on to-night up on Madison
+Avenue, an' we're a man short. Dere's dough in it if we make it go all
+right. Rich man. Girl goin' out to a party to-night. She's goin' to wear
+some dimons wurth a penny. Hed it in de paper. Brung 'em home from de bank
+this mornin'. One o' de gang watched de feller come out o' de bank. It's
+all straight so fur. It's a pretty big haul to let you in de first try, an'
+you'll hev to run all de risks; but ef you show you're game we'll make it a
+bargain."
+
+Michael held himself tensely and fought the desire to choke the fellow
+before him; tried to remember that he was the same Sam who had once divided
+a crust with him, and whom he had come to help; reflected that he might
+have been as bad himself if he had never been taken from the terrible
+environment of the slums and shown a better way; knew that if he for one
+fraction of a second showed his horror at the evil plot, or made any
+attempt to stop it all hope of reaching Sam, or Buck, or any of the others
+was at an end; and with it all hope of finding any stray links of his own
+past history. Besides, though honor was strong in him and he would never
+"snitch" on his companions, it would certainly be better to find out as
+much as possible about the scheme. There might be other ways besides
+"snitching" of stopping such things. Then suddenly his heart almost stopped
+beating, Madison Avenue! Sam had said Madison Avenue, and a girl! What if
+it were Starr's jewels they were planning to take. He knew very little
+about such matters save what he had read. It did not occur to him that
+Starr was not yet "out" in society; that she would be too young to wear
+costly jewels and have her costume put in the paper. He only knew that his
+heart was throbbing again painfully, and that the fellow before him seemed
+too vile to live longer on the same earth with Starr, little, beautiful,
+exquisite Starr.
+
+He was quite still when Sam had finished; his face was white with emotion
+and his eyes were blazing blue flames when he raised them to look at Sam.
+Then he became aware that his answer was awaited.
+
+"Sam, do you mean _burglary_?" He tried to keep his voice low and steady as
+he spoke but he felt as if he had shouted the last word. The restaurant
+was almost empty now, and the waiters had retired behind the scenes amid a
+clatter of dishes.
+
+"That's about as pretty a word as you can call it, I guess," said Sam,
+drawing back with a snarl as he saw the light in Michael's eyes.
+
+Michael looked him through for an instant, and if a glance can burn then
+surely Sam's little soul shrank scorching into itself, but it was so brief
+that the brain which was only keen to things of the earth had not analyzed
+it. Michael dropped his glance to the table again, and began playing with
+his spoon and trying to get calm with a deep breath as he used to when he
+knew a hard spot in a ball game was coming.
+
+"Well, why don't you speak? You 'fraid?" It was said with a sneer that a
+devil from the pit might have given.
+
+Then Michael sat up calmly. His heart was beating steadily now and he was
+facing his adversary.
+
+"No! I'm not afraid, Sam, if there were any good reason for going, but you
+know I never could feel comfortable in getting my living off somebody else.
+It doesn't seem fair to the other fellow. You see they've got a right to
+the things they own and I haven't; and because I might be smart enough to
+catch them napping and sneak away with what they prize doesn't make it
+right either. Now that girl probably thinks a lot of her diamonds, you see,
+and it doesn't seem quite the manly thing for a big strong fellow like me
+to get them away from her, does it? Of course you may think differently,
+but I believe I'd rather do some good hard work that would keep my muscles
+in trim, than to live off some one else. There's a kind of pretty gray moss
+that grows where I went to college. It floats along a little seed blown in
+the air first and lodges on the limb of a tree and begins to fasten itself
+into the bark, and grow and grow and suck life from the big tree. It
+doesn't seem much at first, and it seems as if the big tree might spare
+enough juice to the little moss. But wait a few years and see what happens.
+The moss grows and drapes itself in great long festoons all over that tree
+and by and by the first thing you know that tree has lost all its green
+leaves and stands up here stark and dead with nothing on its bare branches
+but that old gray moss which has to die too because it has nothing to live
+on any longer. It never learned to gather any juice for itself. They call
+the moss a parasite. I couldn't be a human parasite, Sam. You may feel
+differently about it, but I couldn't. I really couldn't."
+
+Michael's eyes had grown dreamy and lost their fire as he remembered the
+dear South land, and dead sentinel pines with their waving gray festoons
+against the ever blue sky. As he talked he saw the whole great out-of-doors
+again where he had wandered now so many years free and happy; free from
+burdens of humanity which were pressing him now so sorely. A great longing
+to fly back to it all, to get away from the sorrow and the degradation and
+the shame which seemed pressing so hard upon him, filled his heart, leaped
+into his eyes, caught and fascinated the attention of the listening Sam,
+who understood very little of the peroration. He had never heard of a
+parasite. He did not know he had always been a human parasite. He was
+merely astonished and a trifle fascinated by the passion and appeal in
+Michael's face as he spoke.
+
+"Gosh!" he said in a tone almost of admiration. "Gosh! Is that wot
+edicashun done fer you?"
+
+"Perhaps," said Michael pleasantly, "though I rather think, Sam, that I
+always felt a bit that way, I just didn't know how to say it."
+
+"Wal, you allus was queer!" muttered Sam half apologetically. "I couldn't
+see it that way myself, as you say, but o' course it's your fun'ral! Ef you
+kin scratch up enough grub bein' a tree, why that's your own lookout. Moss
+is good 'nough fer me fer de present."
+
+Michael beamed his wonderful smile on Sam and answered: "Perhaps you'll see
+it my way some day, Sam, and then we can get a job together!"
+
+There was so much comraderie in the tone, and so much dazzling brilliancy
+in the smile that Sam forgot to be sullen.
+
+"Wal, mebbe," he chuckled, "but I don't see no edicashun comin' my way dis
+late day, so I guess I'll git along de way I be."
+
+"It isn't too late yet, Sam. There's more than one way of getting an
+education. It doesn't always come through college."
+
+After a little more talk in which Sam promised to find out if there was
+any way for Michael to visit Jim in his temporary retirement from the
+law-abiding world, and Michael promised to visit Sam in the alley again at
+an appointed time, the two separated.
+
+Then Michael went forth to reconnoitre and to guard the house of Endicott.
+
+With no thought of any personal danger, Michael laid his plans. Before
+sundown, he was on hand, having considered all visible and invisible means
+of ingress to the house. He watched from a suitable distance all who came
+and went. He saw Mr. Endicott come home. He waited till the evening drew
+near when a luxurious limousine stopped before the door; assured himself
+that only Mrs. Endicott had gone out. A little later Mr. Endicott also left
+the house. Starr had not gone out. He felt that he had double need to watch
+now as she was there alone with only the servants.
+
+Up and down he walked. No one passed the Endicott house unwatched by him.
+None came forth or went in of whom he did not take careful notice.
+
+The evening passed, and the master and mistress of the house returned. One
+by one the lights went out. Even in the servants' rooms all was dark at
+last. The night deepened and the stars thickened overhead.
+
+The policeman's whistle sounded through the quiet streets and the city
+seemed at last to be sinking into a brief repose. It was long past
+midnight, and still Michael kept up his patrol. Up this side of the street,
+down that, around the corner, through the alley at the back where "de kids"
+had stood in silent respect uncovered toward his window years ago; back to
+the avenue again, and on around. With his cheery whistle and his steady
+ringing step he awakened no suspicion even when he came near to a
+policeman; and besides, no lurkers of the dark would steal out while he was
+so noisily in the neighborhood.
+
+And so he watched the night through, till the morning broke and sunshine
+flooded the; window of the room where Starr, unconscious of his vigil, lay
+a-sleeping.
+
+Busy milk wagons were making their rounds, and sleepy workmen with dinner
+pails slung over their arms were striding to their day's work through the
+cool of the morning, as Michael turned his steps toward his lodging. Broad
+morning was upon them and deeds of darkness could be no more. The night was
+passed. Nothing had happened. Starr was safe. He went home and to sleep
+well pleased. He might not companion with her, but it was his privilege to
+guard her from unsuspected evils. That was one joy that could not be taken
+from him by the taint that was upon him. Perhaps his being a child of the
+slums might yet prove to be a help to guard her life from harm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+It was the first week in September that Michael, passing through a crowded
+thoroughfare, came face to face with Mr. Endicott.
+
+The days had passed into weeks and Michael had not gone near his
+benefactor. He had felt that he must drop out of his old friend's life
+until a time came that he could show his gratitude for the past. Meantime
+he had not been idle. His winning smile and clear eyes had been his
+passport; and after a few preliminary experiences he had secured a position
+as salesman in a large department store. His college diploma and a letter
+from the college president were his references. He was not earning much,
+but enough to pay his absolute expenses and a trifle over. Meantime he was
+gaining experience.
+
+This Saturday morning of the first week of September he had come to the
+store as usual, but had found that on account of the sudden death of a
+member of the firm the store would be closed for the day.
+
+He was wondering how he should spend his holiday and wishing that he might
+get out into the open and breathe once more the free air under waving
+trees, and listen to the birds, and the waters and the winds. He was half
+tempted to squander a few cents and go to Coney Island or up the Hudson,
+somewhere, anywhere to get out of the grinding noisy tempestuous city,
+whose sin and burden pressed upon his heart night and day because of that
+from which he had been saved; and of that from which he had not the power
+to save others.
+
+Then out of an open doorway rushed a man, going toward a waiting
+automobile, and almost knocking Michael over in his progress.
+
+"Oh! It is you, young man! At last! Well, I should like to know what you
+have done with yourself all these weeks and why you didn't keep your
+appointment with me?"
+
+"Oh!" said Michael, pleasure and shame striving together in his face. He
+could see that the other man was not angry, and was really relieved to have
+found him.
+
+"Where are you going, son?" Endicotts tone had already changed from
+gruffness to kindly welcome. "Jump in and run down to the wharf with me
+while you give an account of yourself. I'm going down to see Mrs. Endicott
+off to Europe. She is taking Starr over to school this winter. I'm late
+already, so jump in."
+
+Michael seemed to have no choice and stepped into the car, which was
+whirled through the intricate maze of humanity and machinery down toward
+the regions where the ocean-going steamers harbor.
+
+His heart was in a tumult at once, both of embarrassed joy to be in
+the presence of the man who had done so much for him, and of eager
+anticipation. Starr! Would he see Starr again? That was the thought
+uppermost in his mind. He had not as yet realized that she was going away
+for a long time.
+
+All the spring time he had kept guard over the house in Madison Avenue. Not
+all night of course, but hovering about there now and then, and for two
+weeks after he had talked with Sam, nightly. Always he had walked that way
+before retiring and looked toward the window where burned a soft light.
+Then they had gone to the seashore and the mountains and the house had put
+on solemn shutters and lain asleep.
+
+Michael knew all about it from a stray paragraph in the society column of
+the daily paper which he happened to read.
+
+Toward the end of August he had made a round through Madison Avenue every
+night to see if they had returned home, and for a week the shutters had
+been down and the lights burning as of old. It had been good to know that
+his charge was back there safely. And now he was to see her.
+
+"Well! Give an account of yourself. Were you trying to keep out of my
+sight? Why didn't you come to my office?"
+
+Michael looked him straight in the eye with his honest, clear gaze that
+showed no sowing of wild oats, no dissipation or desire to get away from
+friendly espionage. He decided in a flash of a thought that this man should
+never know the blow his beautiful, haughty wife had dealt him. It was true,
+all she had said, and he, Michael, would give the real reason why he had
+not come.
+
+"Because I thought you had done for me far more than I deserved already,
+and I did not wish to be any further burden to you."
+
+"The dickens you did!" exclaimed Endicott. "You good-for-nothing rascal,
+didn't you know you would be far more of a burden running off in that style
+without leaving a trace of yourself behind so I could hunt you up, than if
+you had behaved yourself and done as I told you? Here I have been doing
+a lot of unnecessary worrying about you. I thought you had fallen among
+thieves or something, or else gone to the dogs. Don't you know that is a
+most unpardonable thing to do, run off from a man who has told you he wants
+to see you? I thought I made you understand that I had more than a passing
+interest in your welfare!"
+
+The color came into the fine, strong face and a pained expression in his
+eyes.
+
+"I'm sorry, sir! I didn't think of it that way. I thought you felt some
+kind of an obligation; I never felt so, but you said you did; and I thought
+if I got out of your way I would trouble you no more."
+
+"Trouble me! Trouble me! Why, son, I like to be troubled once in a while by
+something besides getting money and spending it. You never gave me a shadow
+of trouble, except these last weeks when you've disappeared and I couldn't
+do anything for you. You've somehow crept into my life and I can't get you
+out. In fact, I don't want to. But, boy, if you felt that way, what made
+you come to New York at all? You didn't feel that way the night you came to
+my house to dinner."
+
+Michael's eyes owned that this was true, but his firm lips showed that he
+would never betray the real reason for the change.
+
+"I--didn't--realize--sir!"
+
+"Realize? Realize what?"
+
+"I didn't realize the difference between my station and yours, sir. There
+had never been anything during my years in school to make me know. I am a
+'child of the slums'"--unconsciously he drifted into quotations from Mrs.
+Endicott's speech to him--"and you belong to a fine old family. I don't
+know what terrible things are in my blood. You have riches and a name
+beyond reproach--" He had seen the words in an article he had read the
+evening before, and felt that they fitted the man and the occasion. He did
+not know that he was quoting. They had become a part of his thoughts.
+
+"I might make the riches if I tried hard," he held up his head proudly,
+"but I could never make the name. I will always be a child of the slums, no
+matter what I do!"
+
+"Child of the fiddlesticks!" interrupted Endicott. "Wherever did you get
+all that, rot? It sounds as if you had been attending society functions and
+listening to their twaddle. It doesn't matter what you are the child of, if
+you're a mind to be a man. This is a free country, son, and you can be and
+climb where you please. Tell me, where did you get all these ideas?"
+
+Michael looked down. He did not wish to answer.
+
+"In a number of places," he answered evasively.
+
+"Where!"
+
+"For one thing, I've been down to the alley where I used to live." The eyes
+were looking into his now, and Endicott felt a strange swelling of pride
+that he had had a hand in the making of this young man.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I know from what you've taken me--I can never be what you are!"
+
+"Therefore you won't try to be anything? Is that it?"
+
+"Oh, no! I'll try to be all that I can, but--I don't belong with you. I'm
+of another class--"
+
+"Oh, bosh! Cut that out, son! Real men don't talk like that. You're a
+better man now than any of the pedigreed dudes I know of, and as for taints
+in the blood, I could tell you of some of the sons of great men who have
+taints as bad as any child of the slums. Young man, you can be whatever you
+set out to be in this world! Remember that."
+
+"Everyone does not feel that way," said Michael with conviction, though he
+was conscious of great pleasure in Endicott's hearty words.
+
+"Who, for instance?" asked Endicott looking at him sharply.
+
+Michael was silent. He could not tell him.
+
+"Who?" asked the insistent voice once more.
+
+"The world!" evaded Michael.
+
+"The world is brainless. You can make the world think what you like, son,
+remember that! Here we are. Would you like to come aboard?"
+
+But Michael stood back.
+
+"I think I will wait here," he said gravely. It had come to him that Mrs.
+Endicott would be there. He must not intrude, not even to see Starr once
+more. Besides, she had made it a point of honor for him to keep away from
+her daughter. He had no choice but to obey.
+
+"Very well," said Endicott, "but see you don't lose yourself again. I want
+to see you about something. I'll not be long. It must be nearly time for
+starting." He hurried away and Michael stood on the edge of the throng
+looking up at the great floating village.
+
+It was his first view of an ocean-going steamer at close range and
+everything about it interested him. He wished he might have gone aboard and
+looked the vessel over. He would like to know about the engines and see the
+cabins, and especially the steerage about which he had read so much. But
+perhaps there would be an opportunity again. Surely there would be. He
+would go to Ellis Island, too, and see the emigrants as they came into
+the country, seeking a new home where they had been led to expect to
+find comfort and plenty of work, and finding none; landing most of them,
+inevitably, in the slums of the cities where the population was already
+congested and where vice and disease stood ready to prey upon them. Michael
+had been spending enough time in the alleys of the metropolis to be already
+deeply interested in the problem of the city, and deeply pained by its
+sorrows.
+
+But his thoughts were not altogether of the masses and the classes as he
+stood in the bright sunlight and gazed at the great vessel about to plow
+its way over the bright waters. He was realizing that somewhere within
+those many little windowed cabins was a bright faced girl, the only one of
+womankind in all the earth about whom his tender thoughts had ever hovered.
+Would he catch a glimpse of her face once more before she went away for the
+winter? She was going to school, her father had said. How could they bear
+to send her across the water from them? A whole winter was a long time; and
+yet, it would pass. Thirteen years had passed since he went away from New
+York, and he was back. It would not be so long as that. She would return,
+and need him perhaps. He would be there and be ready when he was needed.
+
+The fine lips set in a strong line that was good to see. There were the
+patient, fearless lines of a soldier in the boy's face, and rugged strength
+in spite of his unusual beauty of countenance. It is not often one sees a
+face like Michael's. There was nothing womanish in his looks. It was rather
+the completeness of strength and courage combined with mighty modelling
+and perfection of coloring, that made men turn and look after him and look
+again, as though they had seen a god; and made women exclaim over him. If
+he had been born in the circles of aristocracy he would have been the idol
+of society, the spoiled of all who knew him. He was even now being stared
+at by every one in sight, and more than one pair of marine glasses from the
+first cabin deck were pointed at him; but he stood deep in his thoughts and
+utterly unconscious of his own attraction.
+
+It was only a moment before the first warning came, and people crowded on
+the wharf side of the decks, while others hurried down the gang plank.
+Michael watched the confusion with eagerness, his eyes searching the decks
+for all possible chance of seeing Starr.
+
+When the last warning was given, and just as the gang plank was about to be
+hauled up, Mr. Endicott came hurrying down, and Michael suddenly saw her
+face in the crowd on the deck above, her mother's haughtily pretty face
+just behind her.
+
+Without in the least realizing what he was doing Michael moved through the
+crowd until he stood close behind Starr's father, and then all at once he
+became aware that her starry eyes were upon him, and she recognized him.
+
+He lifted his hat and stood in reverent attitude as though in the presence
+of a queen, his eyes glowing eloquently, his speaking face paying her
+tribute as plainly as words could have done. The noonday sun burnished his
+hair with its aureole flame, and more than one of the passengers called
+attention to the sight.
+
+"See that man down there!" exclaimed a woman of the world close behind Mrs.
+Endicott. "Isn't he magnificent! He has a head and shoulders like a
+young god!" She spoke as if her acquaintance with gods was wide, and her
+neighbors turned to look.
+
+"See, mamma," whispered Starr glowing rosily with pleasure, "they are
+speaking of Michael!"
+
+Then the haughty eyes turned sharply and recognized him.
+
+"You don't mean to tell me that upstart has dared to come down and see us
+off. The impudence of him! I am glad your father had enough sense not to
+bring him on board. He would probably have come if he had let him. Come
+away, Starr. He simply shall not look at you in that way!"
+
+"What! Come away while papa is standing there watching us out of sight.
+I simply couldn't. What would papa think? And besides, I don't see why
+Michael shouldn't come if he likes. I think it was nice of him. I wonder
+why he hasn't been to the house to explain why he never came for that
+horseback ride."
+
+"You're a very silly ignorant little girl, or you would understand that he
+has no business presuming to come to our house; and he knows it perfectly
+well. I want you to stop looking in that direction at once. I simply will
+not have him devouring you with his eyes in that way. I declare I would
+like to go back and tell him what I think of him. Starr, stop I tell you,
+Starr!"
+
+But the noise of the starting drowned her words, and Starr, her cheeks like
+roses and her eyes like two stars, was waving a bit of a handkerchief and
+smiling and throwing kisses. The kisses were for her father, but the smiles
+and the starry glances, and the waving bit of cambric were for Michael,
+and they all travelled through the air quite promiscuously, drenching the
+bright uncovered head of the boy with sweetness. His eyes gave her greeting
+and thanks and parting all in one in that brief moment of her passing: and
+her graceful form and dainty vivid face were graven on his memory in quick
+sweet blows of pain, as he realized that she was going from him.
+
+Slowly the great vessel glided out upon the bright waters and grew smaller
+and smaller. The crowd on the wharf were beginning to break away and hurry
+back to business or home or society. Still Michael stood with bared head
+gazing, and that illumined expression upon his face.
+
+Endicott, a mist upon his own glasses at parting from his beloved baby,
+saw the boy's face as it were the face of an angel; and was half startled,
+turning away embarrassedly as though he had intruded upon a soul at prayer;
+then looked again.
+
+"Come, son!" he said almost huskily. "It's over! We better be getting back.
+Step in."
+
+The ride back to the office was a silent one. Somehow Endicott did not feel
+like talking. There had been some differences between himself and his wife
+that were annoying, and a strange belated regret that he had let Starr go
+away for a foreign education was eating into his heart. Michael, on his
+part, was living over again the passing of the vessel and the blessing of
+the parting.
+
+Back in the office, however, all was different. Among the familiar walls
+and gloomy desks and chairs Endicott was himself, and talked business. He
+put questions, short, sharp and in quick succession.
+
+"What are you doing with yourself? Working? What at? H'm! How'd you get
+there? Like it? Satisfied to do that all your life? You're not? Well,
+what's your line? Any ambitions? You ought to have got some notion in
+college of what you're fit for. Have you thought what you'd like to do in
+the world?"
+
+Michael hesitated, then looked up with his clear, direct, challenging gaze.
+
+"There are two things," he said, "I want to earn money and buy some land in
+the country, and I want to know about laws."
+
+"Do you mean you want to be a lawyer?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What makes you think you'd be a success as a lawyer?"
+
+"Oh, I might not be a success, but I need to know law, I want to try to
+stop some things that ought not to be."
+
+"H'm!" grunted Endicott disapprovingly. "Don't try the reform game, it
+doesn't pay. However, if you feel that way you'll probably be all right to
+start. That'll work itself off and be a good foundation. There's no reason
+why you shouldn't be a lawyer if you choose, but you can't study law
+selling calico. You might get there some day, if you stick to your
+ambition, but you'd be pretty old before you were ready to practice if you
+started at the calico counter and worked your way up through everything you
+came to. Well, I can get you into a law office right away. How soon can
+you honorably get away from where you are? Two weeks? Well, just wait a
+minute."
+
+Endicott called up a number on the telephone by his side, and there
+followed a conversation, brief, pointed, but in terms that Michael could
+barely follow. He gathered that a lawyer named Holt, a friend of Mr.
+Endicott's, was being asked to take him into his office to read law.
+
+"It's all right, son," said Endicott as he hung up the receiver and whirled
+around from the 'phone. "You're to present yourself at the office as soon
+as you are free. This is the address"--hurriedly scribbling something on a
+card and handing it to him.
+
+"Oh, thank you!" said Michael, "but I didn't mean to have you take any more
+trouble for me. I can't be dependent on you any longer. You have done so
+much for me--"
+
+"Bosh!" said Endicott, "I'm not taking any trouble. And you're not
+dependent on me. Be as independent as you like. You're not quite twenty-one
+yet, are you? Well, I told you you were my boy until you were of age, and I
+suppose there's nothing to hinder me doing as I will with my own. It's paid
+well all I've done for you so far, and I feel the investment was a good
+one. You'll get a small salary for some office work while you're studying,
+so after you are twenty-one you can set up for yourself if you like. Till
+then I claim the privilege of giving you a few orders. Now that's settled.
+Where are you stopping? I don't intend to lose sight of you again."
+
+Michael gave him the street and number. Endicott frowned.
+
+"That's not a good place. I don't like the neighborhood. If you're going to
+be a lawyer, you must start in right. Here, try this place. Tell the woman
+I sent you. One of my clerks used to board there."
+
+He handed Michael another address.
+
+"Won't that cost a lot?" asked Michael studying the card. "Not any more
+than you can afford," said Endicott, "and remember, I'm giving orders until
+your majority."
+
+Michael beamed his brilliant smile at his benefactor.
+
+"It is like a real father!" said the boy deeply moved. "I can never repay
+you. I can never forget it."
+
+"Well, don't!" said Endicott. "Let's turn to the other thing. What do you
+want land for?"
+
+Michael's face sobered instantly.
+
+"For an experiment I want to try," he said without hesitation, and then,
+his eyes lighting up, "I'll be able to do it now, soon, perhaps, if I work
+hard. You see I studied agriculture in college--"
+
+"The dickens you did!" exclaimed Endicott. "What did you do that for?"
+
+"Well, it was there and I could, and I wanted to know about it."
+
+"H'm!" said Endicott. "I wonder what some of my pedigreed million-dollar
+friend's sons would think of that? Well, go on."
+
+"Why, that's all," laughed Michael happily. "I studied it and I want to try
+it and see what I can do with it. I want to buy a farm."
+
+"How would you manage to be a farmer and a lawyer both?"
+
+"Well, I thought there might he a little time after hours to work, and I
+could tell others how--"
+
+"Oh, I see you want to be a gentleman farmer," laughed Endicott. "I
+understand that's expensive business."
+
+"I think I could make it pay, sir." said Michael shutting his lips with
+that firm challenge of his. "I'd like to try."
+
+Endicott looked at him quizzically for a minute and then whirling around in
+his office chair he reached out his hand to a pigeon hole and took out a
+deed.
+
+"I've a mind to let you have your try," said Endicott, chuckling as if it
+were a good joke. "Here's a little farm down in Jersey. It's swampy and
+thick with mosquitoes. I understand it won't grow a beanstalk. There
+are twelve acres and a tumble-down house on it. I've had to take it in
+settlement of a mortgage. The man's dead and there's nothing but the farm
+to lay hands on. He hasn't even left a chick or child to leave his debt to.
+I don't want the farm and I can't sell it without a lot of trouble. I'll
+give it to you. You may consider it a birthday present. If you'll pay the
+taxes I'll be glad to get it off my hands. That'll be something for you to
+be independent about."
+
+He touched a bell and a boy appeared.
+
+"Take this to Jowett and tell him to have a deed made out to Michael
+Endicott, and to attend to the transfer of the property, nominal sum.
+Understand?"
+
+The boy said, "Yes, sir," and disappeared with the paper.
+
+"But I can't take a present like that from you after all you have done for
+me," gasped Michael, a granite determination showing in his blue eyes.
+"Nonsense," said Endicott. "Other men give their sons automobiles when they
+come of age. Mayn't I give you a farm if I like? Besides, I tell you it's
+of no account. I want to get rid of it, and I want to see what you'll make
+of it. I'd like to amuse myself seeing you try your experiment."
+
+"If you'll let me pay you for it little by little--"
+
+"Suit yourself after you have become a great lawyer," laughed Endicott,
+"but not till then, remember. There, cut it out, son! I don't want to be
+thanked. Here's the description of the place and directions how to get
+there. It isn't many miles away. If you've got a half holiday run down
+and look it over. It'll keep you out of mischief. There's nothing like an
+ambition to keep people out of mischief. Bun along now, I haven't another
+minute to spare, but mind you turn up at Holt's office this day two weeks,
+and report to me afterwards how you like it. I don't want to lose sight of
+you again."
+
+The entrance of another man on business cut short the interview, and
+Michael, bestowing an agonizingly happy grip on Endicott's hand and a
+brilliant smile like a benediction, took his directions and hurried out
+into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+With the precious paper in his hand Michael took himself with all
+swiftness to the DesBrosses Ferry. Would there be a train? It was almost
+two o'clock. He had had no lunch, but what of that? He had that in his
+heart which made mere eating seem unnecessary. The experiences of the past
+two hours had lifted him above, earth and its necessities for the time. And
+a farm, a real farm! Could it be true? Had his wish come true so soon? He
+could scarcely wait for the car to carry him or the boat to puff its way
+across the water. He felt as if he must fly to see his new possession. And
+Mr. Endicott had said he might pay for it sometime when he got to be a
+great lawyer. He had no doubt but that he would get there if such a thing
+were possible, and anyhow he meant to pay for that ground. Meantime it was
+his. He was not a poor nobody after all. He owned land, and a house.
+
+His face was a mingling of delightful emotions as he stood by the rail of
+the ferry-boat and let his imagination leap on ahead of him. The day was
+perfect. It had rained the night before and everything, even the air seemed
+newly washed for a fresh trial at living. Every little wavelet sparkled
+like a jewel, and the sunlight shimmered on the water in a most alluring
+way. Michael forgot for the moment the sorrow and misery of the crowded
+city he was leaving behind him. For this afternoon at least he was a boy
+again wandering off into the open.
+
+His train was being called as he stepped from the ferry-boat. The next boat
+would have missed it. He hurried aboard and was soon speeding through the
+open country, with now and again a glimpse of the sea, as the train came
+closer to the beach. They passed almost continuously beautiful resorts,
+private villas, great hotels, miles of cottages set in green terrace with
+glowing autumn flowers in boxes or bordering the paths.
+
+Michael watched everything with deep interest. This was the land of his new
+possession. Whatever was growing here would be likely to grow on his place
+if it were properly planted and cared for. Ere this flowers had had little
+part in his farming scheme, but so soon as he saw the brilliant display he
+resolved that he must have some of those also. And flowers would sell as
+well if not better than vegetables if properly marketed.
+
+That vivid hedge of scarlet and gold, great heavy-headed dahlias they were.
+He did not know the name, but he would find it out somehow. They would take
+up little room and would make his new place a thing of beauty. Farther on,
+one great white cottage spread its veranda wings on either side to a tall
+fringe of pink and white and crimson cosmos; and again a rambling gray
+stone piece of quaint architecture with low sloping roofs of mossy green,
+and velvet lawn creeping down even to the white beach sands, was set about
+with flaming scarlet sage. It was a revelation to the boy whose eyes had
+never looked upon the like before. Nature in its wildness and original
+beauty had been in Florida; New York was all pavements and buildings with a
+window box here and there. He as yet knew nothing of country homes in their
+luxury and perfection, save from magazine pictures. All the way along he
+was picking out features that he meant some day to transfer to his own
+little farm.
+
+It was after three when he reached the station, and a good fifteen minutes
+walk to the farm, but every step of it was a delight.
+
+Pearl Beach, they called the station. The beach was half a mile from the
+railroad, and a queer little straggling town mostly cottages and a few
+stores hovered between railroad and beach. A river, broad, and shallow,
+wound its silver way about the village and lost itself in the wideness of
+the ocean. Here and there a white sail flew across its gleaming centre, and
+fishermen in little boats sat at their idle task. What if his land should
+touch somewhere this bonny stream!
+
+Too eager to wait for investigation he stopped a passing stranger and
+questioned him. Yes, the river was salt. It had tides with the sea, too.
+There was great fishing and sailing, and some preferred bathing there to
+the ocean. Yes, Old Orchard farm was on its bank. It had a river frontage
+of several hundred feet but it was over a mile back from the beach.
+
+The stranger was disposed to delay and gossip about the death of the former
+owner of Old Orchard and its probable fate now that the mortgage had
+been foreclosed; but Michael with a happy light in his eyes thanked him
+courteously and hurried on. Wings were upon his feet, and his heart was
+light and happy. He felt like a bird set free. He breathed in the strong
+salt air with delight.
+
+And then the burden of the city came to him again, the city with all its
+noise and folly and sin; with its smells and heat, and lack of air; with
+its crowded, suffering, awful humanity, herded together like cattle, and
+living in conditions worse than the beasts of the fields. If he could but
+bring them out here, bring some of them at least; and show them what God's
+earth was like! Ah!
+
+His heart beat wildly at the thought! It was not new. He had harbored it
+ever since his first visit to the alley. It was his great secret, his much
+hoped for experiment. If he might be able to do it sometime. This bit of a
+farm would open the way. There would be money needed of course, and where
+was it to come from? But he could work. He was strong. He would give his
+young life for his people--save them from their ignorance and despair. At
+least he could save some; even one would be worth while.
+
+So he mused as he hurried on, eyes and mind open to all he saw.
+
+There was no fence in front of Old Orchard farm. A white road bordered with
+golden rod and wild asters met the scraggly grass that matted and tangled
+itself beneath the gnarled apple trees. A grassy rutted wagon track curved
+itself in vistas between the trees up to the house which was set far back
+from the road. A man passing identified the place for Michael, and looked
+him over apprizingly, wondering as did all who saw him, at the power and
+strength of his beauty.
+
+The house was weather-beaten unpainted clapboards, its roof of curled and
+mossy shingles possessing undoubted leakable qualities, patched here and
+there. A crazy veranda ambled across the front. It contained a long low
+room with a queer old-fashioned chimney place wide enough to sit in, a
+square south room that must have been a dining-room because of the painted
+cupboard whose empty shelves gazed ghastly between half-open doors, and a
+small kitchen, not much more than a shed. In the long low room a staircase
+twisted itself up oddly to the four rooms under the leaky roof. It was all
+empty and desolate, save for an old cot bed and a broken chair. The floors
+had a sagged, shaky appearance. The doors quaked when they were opened.
+The windows were cobwebby and dreary, yet it looked to the eyes of the new
+householder like a palace. He saw it in the light of future possibilities
+and gloried in it. That chimney place now. How would it look with a great
+log burning in it, and a rug and rocking chair before it. What would--Aunt
+Sally--perhaps--say to it when he got it fixed up? Could he ever coax her
+to leave her dirty doorstep and her drink and come out here to live? And
+how would he manage it all if he could? There would have to be something to
+feed her with, and to buy the rug and the rocking chair. And first of all
+there would have to be a bath-tub. Aunt Sally would need to be purified
+before she could enter the portals of this ideal cottage, when he had
+made it as he wanted it to be. Paint and paper would make wonderful
+transformations he knew, for he had often helped at remodelling the rooms
+at college during summer vacations. He had watched and been with the
+workmen and finally taken a hand. This habit of watching and helping had
+taught him many things. But where were paper and paint and time to use
+it coming from? Ah, well, leave that to the future. He would find a way.
+Yesterday he did not have the house nor the land for it to stand upon. It
+had come and the rest would follow in their time.
+
+He went happily about planning for a bath-room. There would have to be
+water power. He had seen windmills on other places as he passed. That was
+perhaps the solution of this problem, but windmills cost money of course.
+Still,--all in good time.
+
+There was a tumbled-down barn and chicken house, and a frowzy attempt at a
+garden. A strawberry bed overgrown with weeds, a sickly cabbage lifting
+its head bravely; a gaunt row of currant bushes; another wandering,
+out-reaching row of raspberries; a broken fence; a stretch of soppy bog
+land to the right, and the farm trailed off into desolate neglect ending in
+a charming grove of thick trees that stood close down to the river's bank.
+
+Michael went over it all carefully, noted the exposure of the land, kicked
+the sandy soil to examine its unpromising state, walked all around the bog
+and tried to remember what he had read about cranberry bogs; wondered if
+the salt water came up here, and if it were good or bad for cranberries;
+wondered if cow peas grew in Jersey and if they would do for a fertilizing
+crop as they did in Florida. Then he walked through the lovely woods,
+scenting the breath of pines and drawing in long whiffs of life as he
+looked up to the green roof over his head. They were not like the giant
+pines of the South land, but they were sweeter and more beautiful in their
+form.
+
+He went down to the brink of the river and stood looking across.
+
+Not a soul was in sight and nothing moved save a distant sail fleeing
+across the silver sheen to the sea. He remembered what the man had said
+about bathing and yielding to an irresistible impulse was soon swimming
+out across the water. It was like a new lease of life to feel the water
+brimming to his neck again, and to propel himself with strong, graceful
+strokes through the element where he would. A bird shot up into the air
+with a wild sweet note, and he felt like answering to its melody. He
+whistled softly in imitation of its voice, and the bird answered, and again
+and again they called across the water.
+
+But a look toward the west where the water was crimsoning already with the
+setting sun warned him that his time was short, so he swam back to the
+sheltered nook where he had left his clothes, and improvising a towel from
+his handkerchief he dressed rapidly. The last train back left at seven. If
+he did not wish to spend the night in his new and uninhabitable abode he
+must make good time. It was later than he supposed, and he wished to go
+back to the station by way of the beach if possible, though it was out of
+his way. As he drew on his coat and ran his fingers through his hair in
+lieu of a brush, he looked wistfully at the bright water, dimpling now with
+hues of violet, pink, and gold and promising a rare treat in the way of a
+sunset. He would like to stay and watch it. But there was the ocean waiting
+for him. He must stand on the shore once and look out across it, and know
+just how it looked near his own house.
+
+He hurried through the grove and across the farm to the eastern edge, and
+looking beyond the broken fence that marked the bounds of the bog land
+over the waste of salt grass he could see the white waves dimly tumbling,
+hurrying ever, to get past one another. He took the fence at a bound,
+made good time over the uncertain footing of the marsh grass and was soon
+standing on the broad smooth beach with the open stretch of ocean before
+him.
+
+It was the first time he had ever stood on the seashore and the feeling of
+awe that filled him was very great. But beyond any other sensation, came
+the thought that Starr, his beautiful Starr, was out there on that wide
+vast ocean, tossing in a tiny boat. For now the great steamer that had
+seemed so large and palatial, had dwindled in his mind to a frail toy, and
+he was filled with a nameless fear for her. His little Starr out there on
+that fearful deep, with only that cold-eyed mother to take care of her. A
+wild desire to fly to her and bring her back possessed him; a thrilling,
+awesome something, he had never known before. He stood speechless before
+it; then raised his eyes to the roseate already purpling in streaks for the
+sunset and looking solemnly up he said, aloud:
+
+"Oh, God, I love her!"
+
+He stood facing the thought with solemn joy and pain for an instant, then
+turned and fled from it down the purpling sands; fleeing, yet carrying his
+secret with him.
+
+And when he came opposite the little village he trod its shabby,
+straggling, ill-paved streets with glory in his face; and walking thus with
+hat in hand, and face illumined toward the setting sun, folks looked at him
+strangely and wondered who and what he was, and turned to look again. In
+that half-light of sunset, he seemed a being from another world.
+
+A native watching, dropped his whip, and climbing down from his rough wagon
+spoke the thought that all the bystanders felt in common:
+
+"Gosh hang it! I thought he was one o' them glass angels stepped out of a
+church winder over to 'Lizabeth-town. We don't see them kind much. I wonder
+now how he'd be to live with. Think I'd feel kinder creepy hevin' him
+'round all time, wouldn't you?"
+
+All the way home the new thought came surging over him, he loved her and
+she could never be his. It was deluging; it was beautiful; but it was
+agonizing. He recalled how beautiful she had been as she waved farewell.
+And some of her smiles had been for him, he was sure. He had known of
+course that the kisses were for her father, and yet, they had been blown
+freely his way, and she had looked her pleasure at his presence. There had
+been a look in her eyes such as she had worn that day in the college chapel
+when she had thrown precautions to the winds and put her arms about his
+neck and kissed him. His young heart thrilled with a deep joy over the
+memory of it. It had been wonderful that she had done it; wonderful! when
+he was what he was, a _child of the slums_! The words seemed burned upon
+his soul now, a part of his very life. He was not worthy of her, not worthy
+to receive her favor.
+
+Yet he closed his eyes, leaning his head against the window frame as the
+train hurried along through the gathering darkness, and saw again the
+bright lovely face, the dainty fingers blowing kisses, the lips wreathed
+in smiles, and knew some of the farewell had been surely meant for him.
+He forgot the beautiful villas along the way, forgot to watch for the
+twinkling lights, or to care how the cottages looked at evening. Whenever
+the track veered toward the sea and gave a glimpse of gray sky and yawning
+ocean with here and there a point of light to make the darkness blacker, he
+seemed to know instinctively, and opening his eyes strained them to look
+across it. Out there in the blackness somewhere was his Starr and he
+might not go to her, nor she come to him. There was a wide stretch of
+unfathomable sea between them. There would always be that gray, impassable
+sky and sea of impossibility between them.
+
+As he neared New York, however, these thoughts dropped from him; and
+standing on the ferry-boat with the million twinkling lights of the city,
+and the looming blackness of the huddled mass of towering buildings against
+the illuminated sky, the call of the people came to him. Over there in
+the darkness, swarming in the fetid atmosphere of a crowded court were
+thousands like himself, yes, _like himself_, for he was one of them. He
+belonged there. They were his kind and he must help them!
+
+Then his mind went to the farm and his plans, and he entered back into the
+grind of life and assumed its burdens with the sweet pain of his secret
+locked in his inmost heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+"Sam, have you ever been in the country?"
+
+It was Michael who asked the question. They were sitting in a small dismal
+room that Michael had found he could afford to rent in a house on the
+edge of the alley. Not that he had moved there, oh, no! He could not have
+endured life if all of it that he could call his own had to be spent in
+that atmosphere. He still kept his little fourth floor back in the dismally
+respectable street. He had not gone to the place recommended by Endicott,
+because he found that the difference he would have to pay would make it
+possible for him to rent this sad little room near the alley; and for his
+purposes this seemed to him an absolute necessity at present.
+
+The weather was growing too cold for him to meet with his new-old
+acquaintances of the alley out of doors, and it was little better indoors
+even if he could have endured the dirt and squalor of those apartments that
+would have been open to him. Besides, he had a great longing to show them
+something brighter than their own forlorn homes.
+
+There was a settlement house three or four blocks away, but it had not
+drawn the dwellers in this particular alley. They were sunken too low,
+perhaps, or there were so many more hopeful quarters in which to work;
+and the city was so wide and deep and dark. Michael knew little about the
+settlement house. He had read of such things. He had looked shyly toward
+its workers now and then, but as yet knew none of them, though they had
+heard now and again of the "Angel-man of the alley," and were curious to
+find him out.
+
+But Michael's enterprise was all his own, and his ways of working were his
+own. He had gone back into the years of his childhood and found out from
+his inner consciousness what it was he had needed, and now he was going
+to try to give it to some other little "kids" who were as forlorn and
+friendless as he had been. It wasn't much that he could do, but what he
+could he would do, and more as soon as possible.
+
+And so he had rented this speck of a room, and purified it. He had
+literally compelled Sam to help him. That compelling was almost a modern
+miracle, and wrought by radiant smiles, and a firm grip on Sam's shoulder
+when he told him what he wanted done.
+
+Together they had swept and scrubbed and literally scraped, the dirt from
+that room.
+
+"I don't see what you're making sech a darned fuss about dirt fer!"
+grumbled Sam as he arose from his knees after scrubbing the floor for the
+fourth time. "It's what we're all made of, dey say, an' nobuddy'll know de
+diffrunce."
+
+"Just see if they won't, Sam," encouraged Michael as he polished off the
+door he had been cleaning. "See there, how nice that looks! You didn't know
+that paint was gray, did you? It looked brown before, it was so thick with
+dirt. Now we're ready for paint and paper!"
+
+And so, in an atmosphere of soap and water they had worked night after
+night till very late; and Sam had actually let a well-planned and promising
+raid go by because he was so interested in what he was doing and he was
+ashamed to tell Michael of his engagement.
+
+Sam had never assisted at the papering of a room before; in fact, it is
+doubtful if he ever saw a room with clean fresh paper on its walls in all
+his life, unless in some house he had entered unlawfully. When this one
+stood arrayed at last in its delicate newness, he stood back and surveyed
+it in awed silence.
+
+Michael had chosen paper of the color of the sunshine, for the court was
+dark and the alley was dark and the room was dark. The souls of the people
+too were dark. They must have light and brightness if he would win them to
+better things. Besides, the paper was only five cents a roll, the cheapest
+he could find in the city. Michael had learned at college during vacations
+how to put it on. He made Sam wash and wash and wash his hands before he
+was allowed to handle any of the delicate paper.
+
+"De paper'll jest git dirty right away," grumbled Sam sullenly, albeit he
+washed his hands, and his eyes glowed as they used to when a child at a
+rare "find" in the gutter.
+
+"Wot'll you do when it gits dirty?" demanded Sam belligerently.
+
+"Put on some clean," said Michael sunnily. "Besides, we must learn to have
+clean hands and keep it clean."
+
+"I wish we had some curtains," said Michael wistfully. "They had thin white
+curtains at college."
+
+"Are you makin' a college fer we?" asked Sam looking at him sharply.
+
+"Well, in a way, perhaps," said Michael smiling. "You know I want you to
+have all the advantages I had as far as I can get them."
+
+Sam only whistled and looked perplexed but he was doing more serious
+thinking than he had ever done in his life before.
+
+And so the two had worked, and planned, and now to-night, the work was
+about finished.
+
+The walls reflected the yellow of the sunshine, the woodwork was painted
+white enamel. Michael had, just put on the last gleaming coat.
+
+"We can give it another coat when it looks a little soiled," he had
+remarked to Sam, and Sam, frowning, had replied: "Dey better hev dere han's
+clean."
+
+The floor was painted gray. There was no rug. Michael felt its lack and
+meant to remedy it as soon as possible, but rugs cost money. There was a
+small coal stove set up and polished till it shone, and a fire was laid
+ready to start. They had not needed it while they were working hard. The
+furniture was a wooden, table painted gray with a cover of bright cretonne,
+two wooden chairs, and three boxes. Michael had collected these furnishings
+carefully and economically, for he had to sacrifice many little comforts
+that he might get them.
+
+On the walls were two or three good pictures fastened by brass tacks; and
+some of the gray moss and pine branches from Michael's own room. In the
+central wall appeared one of Michael's beloved college pennants. It was
+understood by all who had yet entered the sacred precincts of the room to
+be the symbol of what made the difference between them and "the angel,"
+and they looked at it with awe, and mentally crossed themselves in its
+presence.
+
+At the windows were two lengths of snowy cheese-cloth crudely hemmed by
+Michael, and tacked up in pleats with brass-headed tacks. They were tied
+back with narrow yellow ribbons. This had been the last touch and Sam sat
+looking thoughtfully at the stiff angular bows when Michael asked the
+question:
+
+"Have you ever been in the country?"
+
+"Sure!" said Sam scornfully. "Went wid de Fresh Air folks wen I were a
+kid."
+
+"What did you think of it?"
+
+"Don't tink much!" shrugged Sam. "Too empty. Nothin' doin'! Good 'nough fer
+kids. Never again fer _me_."
+
+It was three months since Michael had made his memorable first visit down
+to Old Orchard Farm. For weeks he had worked shoulder to shoulder every
+evening with Sam and as yet no word of that plan which was nearest his
+heart had been spoken. This was his first attempt to open the subject.
+
+That Sam had come to have a certain kind of respect and fondness for him he
+was sure, though it was never expressed in words. Always he either objected
+to any plan Michael suggested, or else he was extremely indifferent and
+would not promise to be on hand. He was almost always there, however, and
+Michael had come to know that Sam was proud of his friendship, and at least
+to a degree interested in his plans for the betterment of the court.
+
+"There are things in the country; other things, that make up for the stir
+of the city," said Michael thoughtfully. This was the first unpractical
+conversation he had tried to hold with Sam. He had been leading him up,
+through the various stages from dirt and degradation, by means of soap
+and water, then paper and paint, and now they had reached the doorway of
+Nature's school. Michael wanted to introduce Sam to the great world of
+out-of-doors. For, though Sam had lived all his life out-of-doors, it had
+been a world of brick walls and stone pavements, with little sky and almost
+no water. Not a green thing in sight, not a bird, nor a beast except of
+burden. The first lesson was waiting in a paper bundle that stood under the
+table. Would Sam take it, Michael wondered, as he rose and brought it out
+unwrapping the papers carefully, while Sam silently watched and pretended
+to whistle, not to show too much curiosity. "What tings?" at last asked
+Sam.
+
+"Things like this," answered Michael eagerly setting out on the table an
+earthen pot containing a scarlet geranium in bloom. It glowed forth its
+brilliant torch at once and gave just the touch to the little empty clean
+room that Michael had hoped it would do. He stood back and looked at it
+proudly, and then looked at Sam to see if the lesson had been understood.
+He half expected to see an expression of scorn on the hardened sallow face
+of the slum boy, but instead Sam was gazing open-mouthed, with unmitigated
+admiration.
+
+"Say! Dat's all right!" he ejaculated. "Where'd you make de raise? Say! Dat
+makes de paper an' de paint show up fine!" taking in the general effect of
+the room.
+
+Then he arose from the box on which he had been sitting and went and stood
+before the blossom.
+
+"Say! I wisht Jim eud see dat dere!" he ejaculated after a long silence,
+and there was that in the expression of his face that brought the quick
+moisture to Michael's eyes.
+
+It was only a common red geranium bought for fifteen cents, but it had
+touched with its miracle of bright life the hardened soul of the young
+burglar, and opened his vision to higher things than he had known. It was
+in this moment of open vision that his heart turned to his old companion
+who was uncomplainingly taking the punishment which rightfully belonged to
+the whole gang.
+
+"We will take him one to-morrow," said Michael in a low voice husky with
+feeling. It was the first time Sam had voluntarily mentioned Jim and he had
+seemed so loth to take Michael to see him in jail that Michael had ceased
+to speak of the matter.
+
+"There's another one just like this where I bought this one. I couldn't
+tell which to take, they were both so pretty. We'll get it the first thing
+in the morning before anybody else snaps it up, and then, when could we get
+in to see Jim? Would they let us in after my office hours or would we have
+to wait till Sunday? You look after that will you? I might get off at four
+o'clock if that's not too late."
+
+"Dey'll let us in on Sunday ef _you_ ask, I reckon," said Sam much moved.
+"But it's awful dark in prison. It won't live, will it? Dere's only one
+streak o' sun shines in Jim's cell a few minutes every day."
+
+"Oh, I think it'll live," said Michael hastily, a strange choking sensation
+in his throat at thought of his one-time companion shut into a dark prison.
+Of course, he deserved to be there. He had broken the laws, but then no one
+had ever made him understand how wrong it was. If some one had only tried
+perhaps Jim would never have done the thing that put him in prison.
+
+"I'm sure it will live," he said again cheerfully. "I've heard that
+geraniums are very hardy. The man told me they would live all winter in the
+cellar if you brought them up again in the spring."
+
+"Jim will be out again in de spring," said Sam softly. It was the first
+sign of anything like emotion in Sam.
+
+"Isn't that good!" said Michael heartily. "I wonder what we can do to make
+it pleasant for him when he comes back to the world. We'll bring him to
+this room, of course, but in the spring this will be getting warm. And that
+makes me think of what I was talking about a minute ago. There's so much
+more in the country than in the city!"
+
+"More?" questioned Sam uncomprehendingly.
+
+"Yes, things like this to look at. Growing things that you get to love and
+understand. Wonderful things. There's a river that sparkles and talks as it
+runs. There are trees that laugh and whisper when the wind plays in their
+branches. And there are wonderful birds, little live breaths of air with
+music inside that make splendid friends when you're lonely. I know, for I
+made lots of bird-friends when I went away from you all to college. You
+know I was pretty lonely at first."
+
+Sam looked at him with quick, keen wonder, and a lighting of his face that
+made him almost attractive and sent the cunning in his eyes slinking out of
+sight. Had this fine great-hearted creature really missed his old
+friends when he went away? Had he really need of them yet, with all his
+education--and--difference? It was food for thought.
+
+"Then there's the sky, so much of it," went on Michael, "and so wide and
+blue, and sometimes soft white clouds. They make you feel rested when you
+look at them floating lazily through the blue, and never seeming to be
+tired; not even when there's a storm and they have to hurry. And there's
+the sunset. Sam, I don't believe you ever saw the sunset, not right anyway.
+You don't have sunsets here in the city, it just gets dark. You ought to
+see one I saw not long ago. I mean to take you there some day and we'll
+watch it together. I want to see if it will do the same thing to you that
+it did to me."
+
+Sam looked at him in awe, for he wore his exalted look, and when he spoke
+like that Sam had a superstitious fear that perhaps after all he was as old
+Sal said, more of angel than of man.
+
+"And then, there's the earth, all covered with green, plenty of it to lie
+in if you want to, and it smells so good; and there's so much air,--enough
+to breathe your lungs full, and with nothing disagreeable in it, no ugly
+smells nor sounds. And there are growing things everywhere. Oh, Sam!
+Wouldn't you like to make things like this grow?"
+
+Sam nodded and put forth his rough forefinger shamedly to touch the velvet
+of a green leaf, as one unaccustomed might touch a baby's cheek.
+
+"You'll go with me, Sam, to the country sometime, won't you? I've got a
+plan and I'll need you to help me carry it out. Will you go?"
+
+"Sure!" said Sam in quite a different voice from any reluctant assent he
+had ever given before. "Sure, I'll go!"
+
+"Thank you, Sam," said Michael more moved than he dared show, "And now
+that's settled I want to talk about this room. I'm going to have five
+little kids here to-morrow early in the evening. I told them I'd show them
+how to whittle boats and we're going to sail them in the scrub bucket.
+They're about the age you and I were when I went away to college. Perhaps
+I'll teach them a letter or two of the alphabet if they seem interested.
+They ought to know how to read, Sam."
+
+"I never learned to read--" muttered Sam half belligerently. "That so?"
+said Michael as if it were a matter of small moment. "Well, what if you
+were to come in and help me with the boats. Then you could pick it up when
+I teach them. You might want to use it some day. It's well to know how, and
+a man learns things quickly you know."
+
+Sam nodded.
+
+"I don't know's I care 'bout it," he said indifferently, but Michael saw
+that he intended to come.
+
+"Well, after the kids have gone, I won't keep them late you know, I wonder
+if you'd like to bring some of the fellows in to see this?"
+
+Michael glanced around the room.
+
+"I've some pictures of alligators I have a fancy they might like to see.
+I'll bring them down if you say so."
+
+"Sure!" said Sam trying to hide his pleasure.
+
+"Then to-morrow morning I'm going to let that little woman that lives in
+the cellar under Aunt Sally's room, bring her sewing here and work all day.
+She makes buttonholes in vests. It's so dark in her room she can't see and
+she's almost ruined her eyes working by candle light."
+
+"She'll mess it all up!" grumbled Sam; "an' she might let other folks in
+an' they'd pinch the picters an' the posy."
+
+"No, she won't do that. I've talked to her about it. The room is to be hers
+for the day, and she's to keep it looking just as nice as it did when she
+found it. She'll only bring her work over, and go home for her dinner.
+She's to keep the fire going so it will be warm at night, and she's to try
+it for a day and see how it goes. I think she'll keep her promise. We'll
+try her anyway."
+
+Sam nodded as to a superior officer who nevertheless was awfully foolish.
+
+"Mebbe!" he said.
+
+"Sam, do you think it would be nice to bring Aunt Sally over now a few
+minutes?"
+
+"No," said Sam shortly, "she's too dirty. She'd put her fingers on de wall
+first thing--"
+
+"But Sam, I think she ought to come. And she ought to come first. She's the
+one that helped me find you--"
+
+Sam looked sharply at Michael and wondered if he suspected how long that
+same Aunt Sally had frustrated his efforts to find his friends.
+
+"We could tell her not to touch things, perhaps--"
+
+"Wal, you lemme tell her. Here! I'll go fix her up an' bring her now." And
+Sam hurried out of the room.
+
+Michael waited, and in a few minutes Sam returned with Aunt Sally. But it
+was a transformed Aunt Sally. Her face had been painfully scrubbed in a
+circle out as far as her ears, and her scraggy gray hair was twisted in a
+tight knot at the back of her neck. Her hands were several shades cleaner
+than Michael had ever seen them before, and her shoes were tied. She wore a
+small three-cornered plaid shawl over her shoulders and entered cautiously
+as if half afraid to come. Her hands were clasped high across her breast.
+She had evidently been severely threatened against touching anything.
+
+"The saints be praised!" she ejaculated warmly after she had looked around
+in silence for a moment "To think I should ivver see the loikes uv this in
+de alley. It lukes loike a palace. Mikky, ye're a Nangel, me b'y! An'
+a rale kurtin, to be shure! I ain't seen a kurtin in the alley since I
+cummed. An' will ye luke at the purty posy a blowin' as foine as ye plaze!
+Me mither had the loike in her cottage window when I was a leetle gal! Aw,
+me pure auld mither!"
+
+And suddenly to Michael's amazement, and the disgust of Sam, old Sal sat
+down on the one chair and wept aloud, with the tears streaming down her
+seamed and sin-scarred face.
+
+Sam was for putting her out at once, but Michael soothed her with his
+cheery voice, making her tell of her old home in Ireland, and the kind
+mother whom she had loved, though it was long years since she had thought
+of her now.
+
+With rare skill he drew from her the picture of the little Irish cottage
+with its thatched roof, its peat fire, and well-swept hearth; the table
+with the white cloth, the cat in the rocking chair, the curtain starched
+stiffly at the window, the bright posy on the deep window ledge; and,
+lastly, the little girl with clean pinafore and curly hair who kissed her
+mother every morning and trotted off to school. But that was before the
+father died, and the potatoes failed. The school days were soon over, and
+the little girl with her mother came to America. The mother died on the way
+over, and the child fell into evil hands. That was the story, and as it was
+told Michael's face grew tender and wistful. Would that he knew even so
+much of his own history as that!
+
+But Sam stood by struck dumb and trying to fancy that this old woman had
+ever been the bright rosy child she told about. Sam was passing through a
+sort of mental and moral earthquake.
+
+"Perhaps some day we'll find another little house in the country where you
+can go and live," said Michael, "but meantime, suppose you go and see
+if you can't make your room look like this one. You scrub it all up and
+perhaps Sam and I will come over and put some pretty paper on the walls for
+you. Would you like that? How about it, Sam?"
+
+"Sure!" said Sam rather grudgingly. He hadn't much faith in Aunt Sally
+and didn't see what Michael wanted with her anyway, but he was loyal to
+Michael.
+
+Irish blessings mingled with tears and garnished with curses in the most
+extraordinary way were showered upon Michael and at last when he could
+stand no more, Sam said:
+
+"Aw, cut it out, Sal. You go home an' scrub. Come on, now!" and he bundled
+her off in a hurry.
+
+Late as it was, old Sal lit a fire, and by the light of a tallow candle got
+down on her stiff old knees and began to scrub. It seemed nothing short of
+a miracle that her room could ever look like that one she had just seen,
+but if scrubbing could do anything toward it, scrub she would. It was ten
+years since she had thought of scrubbing her room. She hadn't seemed to
+care; but to-night as she worked with her trembling old drink-shaken hands
+the memory of her childhood's home was before her vision, and she worked
+with all her might.
+
+So the leaven of the little white room in the dark alley began to work.
+"The Angel's quarters" it was named, and to be called to go within its
+charmed walls was an honor that all coveted as time went on. And that was
+how Michael began the salvation of his native alley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Michael had been three months with the new law firm and was beginning
+to get accustomed to the violent contrast between the day spent in the
+atmosphere of low-voiced, quiet-stepping, earnest men who moved about in
+their environment of polished floors, oriental rugs, leather chairs and
+walls lined with leather-covered law books; and the evening down in the
+alley where his bare, little, white and gold room made the only tolerable
+spot in the neighborhood.
+
+He was still occupying the fourth floor back at his original boarding
+house, and had seen Mr. Endicott briefly three or four times, but nothing
+had been said about his lodgings.
+
+One morning he came to the desk set apart for him in the law office, and
+found a letter lying there for him.
+
+"Son:" it said, "your board is paid at the address given below, up to the
+day you are twenty-one. If you don't get the benefit it will go to waste.
+Mrs. Semple will make you quite comfortable and I desire you to move to
+her house at once. If you feel any obligation toward me this is the way to
+discharge it. Hope you are well, Tours, Delevan Endicott.'"
+
+Michael's heart beat faster with varied emotions. It was pleasant to have
+some one care, and of course if Mr. Endicott wished it so much he would
+manage it somehow--perhaps he could get some night work or copying to
+do--but he would never let him bear his expenses. That could not be.
+
+He hurried off at the noon hour to find his benefactor and make this plain
+with due gratitude. He found, however, that it was not so easy to change
+this man's mind, once made up. Endicott would not hear to any change in
+arrangements. He had paid the board for the remaining months of Michael's
+minority and maintained his right to do so if he chose. Neither would he
+let Michael refund him any of the amount.
+
+So Michael moved, bag and baggage, and found the change good. The regular,
+well-cooked meals gave zest to his appetite which had been going back on
+him for sometime under his own economical regime, and the larger room with
+better outlook and more air, to say nothing of a comfortable bed with
+adjoining bath-room, and plenty of heat and light, made life seem more
+worth while. Besides there were other boarders with whom he now came in
+pleasant contact, and there was a large pleasant parlor with easy chairs
+and an old-fashioned square piano which still retained much of its original
+sweetness of tone.
+
+Mrs. Semple had a daughter Hester, an earnest, gray-eyed girl with soft
+brown hair and a firm little chin, who had taken an art course in Cooper
+Institute and painted very good pictures which, however, did not sell.
+Hester played the piano--not very well, it is true, but well enough to make
+it pleasant to a lonely boy who had known no music in his life except the
+birds or his own whistle. She played hymns on Sunday after church while
+they waited for the dinner to be ready; and evenings after supper she
+played other things: old ballads and tender, touching melodies from old
+masters simplified, for such as she. Michael sometimes lingered a half hour
+before hurrying away to the alley, and joined his rich natural tenor with
+her light pretty soprano. Sometimes Will French, a young fellow who was in
+the same law office and also boarded at Mrs. Semple's, stayed awhile and
+sang bass. It was very pleasant and made it seem more as if he were living
+in a home.
+
+All this time Michael was carrying on his quiet work in the alley, saying
+nothing about it to anybody. In the first place he felt shy about it
+because of his personal connection with the place. Not that he wished to
+hide his origin from his employers, but he felt he owed it to Mr. Endicott
+who had recommended him, to be as respectable in their sight as possible;
+and so long as they neither knew nor cared it did not matter. Then, it
+never occurred to Michael that he was doing anything remarkable with his
+little white room in the blackness of the stronghold of sin. Night after
+night he gathered his newsboys and taught them whittling, basketry,
+reading, arithmetic and geography, with a little philosophy and botany
+thrown in unawares. Night after night the older fellows dropped in, one
+or two at a time, and listened to the stories Michael told; sometimes of
+college life and games in which they were of course interested; sometimes
+of Nature and his experiences in finding an alligator, or a serpent, or
+watching some bird. It was wonderful how interesting he managed to make
+those talks. He never realized that he was preparing in the school of
+experience to be a magnificent public speaker. With an audience as
+difficult as any he could have found in the whole wide city, he managed to
+hold them every time.
+
+And the favorite theme often was agriculture. He would begin by bringing a
+new little plant to the room, setting it up and showing it to them; talking
+about conditions of soil and how plants were being improved. It was usually
+the _résumé_ of some article on agriculture that he had taken time to read
+at noon and was reviewing for their benefit.
+
+They heard all about Burbank and his wonderful experiments in making plants
+grow and develop, and as they listened they went and stood around the
+blossom that Michael had just brought to them and looked with new wonder at
+it. A flower was a strange enough sight in that court, but when they heard
+these stories it became filled with new interest. For a little while they
+forgot their evil plotting and were lifted above themselves.
+
+Another night the talk would be on fertilizers, and how one crop would
+sometimes give out something that another crop planted later, needed.
+Little by little, because he talked about the things in which he himself
+was interested, he was giving these sons of ignorance a dim knowledge of
+and interest in the culture of life, and the tilling of the ground; getting
+them ready for what he had hardly as yet dared to put into words even to
+himself.
+
+And one day he took Sam down to Old Orchard. It was the week before
+Christmas. They had made their second visit to Jim the week before and he
+had spoken of the spring and when he should get out into the world again.
+He seemed to be planning to get even with those who had confined him for
+his wrongdoing. Michael's heart was filled with anxiety for him.
+
+There was something about Jim that appealed to Michael from the first.
+
+He had seen him first standing behind the grating of his cell, a great
+unkempt hulk of a fellow with fiery red hair and brown eyes that roved
+restlessly, hungrily through the corridor. He would have been handsome but
+for his weak, girlish chin. Jim had melted almost to tears at sight of the
+scarlet geranium they had carried him on that first visit, and seemed to
+care more for the appearance of his old comrade "Mikky" than ever Sam had
+cared.
+
+Jim was to get out in April. If only there were some place for him to go!
+
+They talked of it on the way down, Sam seemed to think that Jim would find
+it pretty hard to leave New York. Sam himself wasn't much interested in the
+continued, hints of Michael about going to the country.
+
+"Nothin' doin'" was his constant refrain when Michael tried to tell him how
+much better it would be if some of the congested part of the city could be
+spread out into the wide country: especially for the poor people, how much
+greater opportunity for success in life there would be for them.
+
+But Sam had been duly impressed with the wideness of the landscape, on this
+his first long trip out of the city, and as Michael unfolded to him the
+story of the gift of the farm, and his own hopes for it, Sam left off his
+scorn and began to give replies that showed he really was thinking about
+the matter.
+
+"Say!" said he suddenly, "ef Buck was to come back would you let him live
+down to your place an' help do all them things you're plannin'?"
+
+"I surely would," said Michael happily. "Say, Sam, do you, or do you _not_
+know where Buck is?"
+
+Sam sat thoughtfully looking out of the window. At this point he turned his
+gaze down to his feet and slowly, cautiously nodded his head.
+
+"I thought so!" said Michael eagerly. "Sam, is he in hiding for something
+he has done?"
+
+Still more slowly, cautiously, Sam nodded his head once more.
+
+"Sam, will you send him a message from me?"
+
+Another nod.
+
+"Tell him that I love him," Michael breathed the words eagerly. His heart
+remembered kindness from Buck more than any other lighting of his sad
+childhood. "Tell him that I want him--that I need him! Tell him that I want
+him to make an appointment to meet me somewhere and let us talk this plan
+of mine over. I want him to go in with me and help me make that farm into
+a fit place to take people who haven't the right kind of homes, where they
+can have honest work and good air and be happy! Will you tell him?"
+
+And Sam nodded his head emphatically.
+
+"An' Jim'll help too ef Buck goes. That's dead sure!" Sam volunteered.
+
+"And Sam, I'm counting on you!"
+
+"Sure thing!" said Sam.
+
+Michael tramped all over the place with Sam, showing him everything and
+telling all his plans. He was very familiar with his land now. He had
+planned the bog for a cranberry patch, and had already negotiated for the
+bushes. He had trimmed up the berry bushes in the garden himself during
+his various holiday trips, and had arranged with a fisherman to dump a few
+haulings of shellfish on one field where he thought that kind of fertilizer
+would be effective. He had determined to use his hundred-dollar graduation
+present in fertilizer and seed. It would not go far but it would be a
+beginning. The work he would have to get some other way. He would have but
+little time to put to it himself until late in the summer probably, and
+there was a great deal that ought to be done in the early spring. He would
+have to be contented to go slow of course, and must remember that unskilled
+labor is always expensive and wasteful; still it would likely be all he
+could get. Just how he would feed and house even unskilled labor was a
+problem yet to be solved.
+
+It was a day of many revelations to Sam. For one thing even the bare snowy
+stretch, of wide country had taken on a new interest to him since Michael
+had been telling all these wonderful things about the earth. Sam's dull
+brain which up to this time had never busied itself about anything except
+how to get other men's goods away from them, had suddenly awakened to the
+wonders of the world.
+
+It was he that recognized a little colony of cocoons on the underside of
+leaves and twigs and called attention to them.
+
+"Say, ain't dem some o' de critters you was showin' de fellers t'other
+night?"
+
+And Michael fell upon them eagerly. They happened to be rare specimens, and
+he knew from college experience that such could be sold to advantage to the
+museums. He showed Sam how to remove them without injuring them. A little
+further on they came to a wild growth of holly, crazy with berries and
+burnished thorny foliage, and near at hand a mistletoe bough loaded with
+tiny white transparent berries.
+
+"Ain't dem wot dey sell fer Chris'sum greens?" Sam's city eyes picked them
+out at once.
+
+"Of course," said Michael delighted. "How stupid of me not to have found
+them before. We'll take a lot back with us and see if we can get any price
+for it. Whatever we get we'll devote to making the house liveable. Holly
+and mistletoe ought to have a good market about now. That's another idea!
+Why not cultivate a lot of this stuff right in this tract of land. It seems
+to grow without any trouble. See! There are lots of little bushes. We'll
+encourage them, Sam. And say, Sam, if you hadn't come along I might never
+have thought of that. You see I needed you."
+
+Sam grunted in a pleased way.
+
+When they came to the house it looked to Michael still more desolate in the
+snowy stretch of setting than it had when the grass was about it. His heart
+sank.
+
+"I don't know as we can ever do anything with the old shack," he said,
+shaking his head wistfully. "It looks worse than I thought."
+
+"'Tain't so bad," said Sam cheerfully. "Guess it's watertight." He placed
+a speculative eye at the dusty window pane he had wiped off with his coat
+sleeve. "Looks dry inside. 'Twould be a heap better'n sleepin' on de
+pavement fer some. Dat dere fire hole would take in a big lot o' wood an' I
+guess dere's a plenty round de place without robbin' de woods none."
+
+Michael led him to the seashore and bade him look. He wanted to see what
+effect it would have upon him. The coast swept wild and bleak in the cold
+December day, and Sam shivered in his thin garments. A look of awe and fear
+came into his face. He turned his back upon it.
+
+"Too big!" he said sullenly, and Michael understood that the sea in its
+vastness oppressed him.
+
+"Yes, there's a good deal of it," he admitted, "but after all it's sort of
+like the geranium flower."
+
+Sam turned back and looked.
+
+"H'm! I don't see nothin' like!" he grunted despairingly.
+
+"Why, it's wonderful! Its beyond us! We couldn't make it. Look at that
+motion! See the white tossing rim of the waves! See that soft green gray!
+Isn't it just the color of the little down on the geranium leaf? See the
+silver light playing back and forth, and look how it reaches as far as you
+can see. Now, doesn't it make you feel a little as it did when you first
+looked at the geranium?"
+
+Michael looked down at Sam from his greater height almost wistfully. He
+wanted him to understand, but Sam looked in vain.
+
+"Not fer mine!" he shrugged. "Gimme the posy every time."
+
+They walked in silence along the beach toward the flowing of the river, and
+Sam eyed the ocean furtively as if he feared it might run up and engulf
+them suddenly when they were not looking. He had seen the ocean from wharfs
+of course; and once stole a ride in a pilot boat out into the deep a little
+way; but he had never been alone thus with the whole sea at once as this
+seemed. It was too vast for him to comprehend. Still, in a misty way he
+knew what Michael was trying to make him understand, and it stirred him
+uncomfortably.
+
+They hired a little boat for a trifle and Michael with strong strokes rowed
+them back to the farm, straight into the sunset. The sky was purple and
+gold that night, and empurpled the golden river, whose ripples blended into
+pink and lavender and green. Sam sat huddled in the prow of the boat facing
+it all. Michael had planned it so. The oars dipped very quietly, and Sam's
+small eyes changed and widened and took it all in. The sun slipped lower in
+a crimson ball, and a flood of crimson light broke through the purple and
+gold for a moment and left a thin, clear line of flame behind.
+
+"Dere!" exclaimed Sam pointing excitedly. "Dat's like de posy. I kin see
+_thet_ all right!"
+
+And Michael rested on his oars and looked back at the sunset, well pleased
+with this day's work.
+
+They left the boat at a little landing where its owner had promised to get
+it, and went back through the wood, gathering a quantity of holly branches
+and mistletoe; and when they reached the city Michael found a good market
+for it, and received enough for what he had brought to more than cover the
+price of the trip. The best of it was that Sam was as pleased with the
+bargain as if it were for his personal benefit.
+
+When they parted Sam wore a sprig of mistletoe in his ragged buttonhole,
+and Michael carried several handsome branches of holly back to his boarding
+place.
+
+Most of this he gave to Hester Semple to decorate the parlor with, but
+one fine branch he kept and carried to his room and fastened it over his
+mirror. Then after looking at it wistfully for a long time he selected a
+glossy spray containing several fine large berries, cut it off and packed
+it carefully in a tiny box. This without name or clue to sender, he
+addressed in printing letters to Starr. Mr. Endicott had asked him to mail
+a letter to her as he passed by the box the last time he had been in the
+office, and without his intention the address had been burned into his
+memory. He had not expected to use it ever, but there could be no harm
+surely in sending the girl this bit of Christmas greeting out of the
+nowhere of a world of possible people. She would never know he had sent
+it, and perhaps it would please her to get a piece of Christmas holly from
+home. She might think her father had sent it. It mattered not, he knew, and
+it helped him to think he might send this much of his thoughts over the
+water to her. He pleased himself with thinking how she would look when
+she opened the box. But whether she would be pleased or not he must only
+surmise, for she would never know to thank him. Ah, well, it was as near as
+he dared hope for touching life's happiness. He must be glad for what he
+might have, and try to work and forget the rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Now about this time the law firm with whom Michael worked became deeply
+interested in their new "boy." He studied hard, and seemed to know what he
+was about all day. They saw signs of extraordinary talent in him. Once or
+twice, thinking to make life pleasant for him, they had invited him to
+their club, or to some evening's entertainment, and always Michael had
+courteously declined, saying that he had an engagement for the evening.
+They casually questioned Will French, the other student, who was a
+happy-go-lucky; in the office because his father wished him to study
+something and not because he wanted to. Will said that Michael went out
+every evening and came in late. Mrs. Semple had remarked that she often
+didn't know whether he came in at all until she saw him come down to
+breakfast.
+
+This report and a certain look of weariness about the eyes some mornings
+led the senior member of the firm to look into Michael's affairs. The
+natural inference was that Michael was getting into social life too
+deeply, perhaps wasting the hours in late revelry when he should have
+been sleeping. Mr. Holt liked Michael, and dreaded to see the signs of
+dissipation appear on that fine face. He asked Will French to make friends
+with him and find out if he could where he spent his evenings. Will readily
+agreed, and at once entered on his mission with a zeal which was beyond all
+baffling.
+
+"Hello, Endicott!" called Will as Michael reached the front door on his way
+to his mission that same evening. "Where're you going? Wait, can't you, and
+I'll walk along with you? I was going to ask you if you wouldn't go to a
+show with me this evening. I haven't anything on for to-night and it's
+slow."
+
+As he spoke he seized his coat and hat which he had purposely left in the
+hall near at hand, and put them on.
+
+"Thank you," said Michael, as they went out together, "I'd be glad to go
+with you but I have something that can't be put off."
+
+"Well, go to-morrow night with me, will you? I like you and I think we
+ought to be friends."
+
+Will's idea was that they would get to talking at a "show" and he could
+find out a good deal in that way. He thought it must be a girl. He had told
+the senior Holt that it was a girl of course and he wouldn't take long to
+spot her. It must be either a girl or revelry to take the fellow out every
+night in the week so late.
+
+"Well, I'm sorry," said Michael again, "but I'm afraid I have an engagement
+every night. It's rather a permanent job I'm engaged in. What do you do
+with your evenings?"
+
+Will launched into a gay description of parties and entertainments to which
+he had been bidden, and nice girls he knew, hinting that he might
+introduce Michael if he was so inclined, and Michael talked on leading his
+unsuspecting companion further and further from the subject of his own
+evenings. Finally they came to a corner and Michael halted.
+
+"I turn here," he said; "which way do you go?"
+
+"Why, I turn too," laughed French. "That is, if you don't object. I'm out
+for a walk and I don't care much what I do. If I'm not welcome just tell me
+and I'll clear out."
+
+"Of course you're quite welcome," said Michael; "I'm glad to have company,
+but the quarter I'm walking to is not a pleasant one for a walk, and indeed
+you mightn't like to return alone even so early in the evening if you walk
+far. I had an unpleasant encounter myself once, but I know the ways of the
+place now and it's different."
+
+Will eyed him curiously.
+
+"Is it allowable to ask where we're going?" he asked in a comical tone.
+
+Michael laughed.
+
+"Certainly. If you're bound to go I'll have to tell you all about it, but
+I strongly advise you to turn back now, for it isn't a very savory
+neighborhood, and I don't believe you'll care for it."
+
+"Where thou goest I will go," mocked Will. "My curiosity is aroused. I
+shall certainly go. If it's safe for you, it is for me. My good looks are
+not nearly so valuable as yours, nor so noticeable. As I have no valuables
+in the world, I can't be knocked down for booty."
+
+"You see they all know me," explained Michael.
+
+"Oh, they do! And can't you introduce me? Or don't you like to?"
+
+"I suppose I can," laughed Michael, "if you really want me to, but
+I'm afraid you'll turn and run when you see them. You see they're not
+very--handsome. They're not what you're used to. You wouldn't want to know
+them."
+
+"But you do."
+
+"I had to," said Michael desperately. "They needed something and I had to
+help them!"
+
+Up to this point Will French had been sure that Michael had fallen into the
+hands of a set of sharpers, but something in his companion's tone made
+him turn and look, and he saw Michael's face uplifted in the light of the
+street lamp, glowing with, a kind of intent earnestness that surprised and
+awed him.
+
+"Look here, man," he said. "Tell me who they are, and what you are doing,
+anyway."
+
+Michael told him in a few words, saying little about himself, or his reason
+for being interested in the alley in the first place. There were a few
+neglected newsboys, mere kids. He was trying to teach them a few things,
+reading and figures and a little manual training. Something to make life
+more than a round of suffering and sin.
+
+"Is it settlement work?" asked French. He was puzzled and interested.
+
+"No," explained Michael, "there's a settlement, but it's too far away and
+got too big a district to reach this alley. It's just my own little work."
+
+"Who pays you for it?"
+
+"Who pays me?"
+
+"Yes, who's behind the enterprise? Who forks over the funds and pays you
+for your job?"
+
+Michael laughed long and loud.
+
+"Well, now, I hadn't thought about pay, but I guess the kiddies themselves
+do. You can't think how they enjoy it all."
+
+"H'm!" said French, "I think I'll go along and see how you do it. I won't
+scare 'em out, will I?"
+
+"Well, now I hadn't thought of that," said Michael. "In fact, I didn't
+suppose you'd care to go all the way, but if you think you do, I guess it
+will be all right."
+
+"Not a very warm welcome, I must say," laughed Will, "but I'm going just
+the same. You get me in and I'll guarantee not to scare the crowd. Have any
+time left over from your studies for amusement? If you do I might come in
+on that. I can do tricks."
+
+"Can you?" said Michael looking at his unbidden guest doubtfully. "Well,
+we'll see. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It's very informal. Sometimes
+we don't get beyond the first step in a lesson. Sometimes I have to stop
+and tell stories."
+
+"Good!" said Will. "I'd like to hear you."
+
+"Oh, you wouldn't enjoy it, but there are a few books there. You might read
+if you get tired looking around the room."
+
+And so Michael and his guest entered the yellow and white room together.
+Michael lit the gas, and Will looked about blinking in amazement.
+
+Coming through the alley to the room had taken away Will's exclamatory
+powers and exhausted his vocabulary. The room in its white simplicity,
+immaculately kept, and constantly in touch with fresh paint to hide any
+stray finger marks, stood out in startling contrast with the regions round
+about it. Will took it all in, paint, paper, and pictures. The tiny stove
+glowing warmly, the improvised seats, the blackboard in the corner, and the
+bits of life as manifested in geranium, butterfly cocoons and bird's nests;
+then he looked at Michael, tall and fine and embarrassed, in the centre of
+it all.
+
+"Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "Is this an enchanted island, or am I in my
+right mind?"
+
+But before he could be answered there came the sound of mattering young
+feet and a tumult outside the door. Then eager, panting, but decorous,
+they entered, some with clean faces, most of them with clean hands, or
+moderately so, all with their caps off in homage to their Prince; and
+Michael welcomed them as if he stood in a luxurious drawing room on Fifth
+Avenue and these were his guests.
+
+He introduced them, and Will entered into the spirit of the affair and
+greeted them chummily. They stood shyly off from him at first with great
+eyes of suspicion, huddled together in a group near Michael, but later when
+the lesson on the blackboard was over and Michael was showing a set of
+pictures, Will sat down in a corner with a string from his pocket and began
+showing two of the boldest of the group some tricks. This took at once, and
+when he added a little sleight-of-hand pulling pennies from the hair and
+pockets and hands of the astonished youngsters and allowing them to keep
+them after the game was over, they were ready to take him into their inner
+circle at once.
+
+When, however, Sam, who was most unaccountably late that night, sidled
+in alone, he looked at the stranger with eyes of belligerence; and when
+Michael introduced him as his friend, Sam's eyes glinted with a jealous
+light. Sam did not like Michael to have any friends of that sort. This new
+man had shiny boots, fine new clothes, wore his hair nicely brushed, and
+manipulated a smooth handkerchief with fingers as white as any gentleman.
+To be sure Michael was like that, but then Michael was Michael. He belonged
+to them, and his clothes made him no worse. But who was this intruder? A
+gentleman? All gentlemen were natural enemies to Sam.
+
+"Come outside," said Sam to Michael gruffly, ignoring the white hand Will
+held out cordially. Michael saw there was something on his mind.
+
+"Will, can you amuse these kids a minute or two while I step out? I'll not
+be long."
+
+"Sure!" said Will heartily. He hadn't had such a good time in months and
+what a story he would have to tell the senior partner in the morning.
+
+"Ever try to lift a fellow's hand off the top of his head? Here, you kid,
+sit in that chair and put your right hand flat on the top of your head.
+Now, sonnie, you lift it off. Pull with all your might. That's it--"
+
+Michael's eyes shone, and even Sam grinned surreptitiously.
+
+"He'll do," he said to Sam as they went out. "He was lonesome this evening
+and wanted to come along with me."
+
+Lonesome! A fellow like that! It gave Sam a new idea to think about. Did
+people who had money and education and were used to living in clothes like
+that get lonesome? Sam cast a kindlier eye back at Will as he closed the
+door.
+
+Alone in the dark cold entry where the wind whistled up from the river and
+every crack seemed a conductor of a blast, Sam and Michael talked in low
+tones:
+
+"Say, he's lit out!" Sam's tone conveyed dismay as well as apology.
+
+It was a sign of Michael's real eagerness that he knew at once who was
+meant.
+
+"Buck?"
+
+Sam grunted assent.
+
+"When?"
+
+"Day er so ago, I tuk yer word to 'im but he'd gone. Lef' word he had a big
+deal on, an' ef it came troo all right 'e'd send fer us. You see it wan't
+safe round here no more. The police was onto his game. Thur wan't no more
+hidin' fer him. He was powerful sorry not to see you. He'd always thought a
+heap o' Mikky!"
+
+"How long had he known I was here?" Michael's face was grave in the
+darkness. Why had Buck not sent him some word? Made some appointment?
+
+"Since you first cum back."
+
+"Why--oh, Sam, why didn't he let me come and see him?"
+
+"It warn't safe," said Sam earnestly. "Sure thing, it warn't! 'Sides--"
+
+"Besides what, Sam?" The question was eager.
+
+"'Sides, he knowed you'd had edicashun, an' he knowed how you looked on his
+way o' livin'. He didn't know but--"
+
+"You mean he didn't trust me, Sam?" Sam felt the keen eyes upon him even hi
+the darkness.
+
+"Naw, he didn't tink you'd snitch on him ner nothin', but he didn't know
+but you might tink you had to do some tings what might kick it all up wid
+him. You'd b'en out o' tings fer years, an' you didn't know de ways o' de
+city. 'Sides, he ain't seed you like I done--"
+
+"I see," said Michael, "I understand. It's a long time and of course he
+only knows what you have told him, and if there was danger,--but oh, Sam, I
+wish he could go down to Old Orchard. Did you ever tell him about it, and
+about my plans?"
+
+"Sure ting I did. Tole 'im all you tole me. He said 'twar all right. Ef he
+comes out on dis deal he'll be back in a while, an' he'll go down dere ef
+you want him. He said he'd bring a little wad back to make things go ef dis
+deal went troo."
+
+"Do you know what the deal is, Sam?"
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"Is it dis--is it"--he paused for a word that would convey his meaning and
+yet not offend--"is it--dangerous, Sam?"
+
+"Sure!" admitted Sam solemnly as though it hurt him to pain his friend.
+
+"Do you mean it will make more hiding for him?"
+
+"Sure!" emphatically grave.
+
+"I wish he hadn't gone!" There was sharp pain in Michael's voice.
+
+"I wisht so too!'" said Sam with a queer little choke to his voice, "Mebbe
+'twon't come off after all. Mebbe it'll git blocked. Mebbe he'll come
+back."
+
+The anxiety in Sam's tone touched Michael, but another thought had struck
+him hard.
+
+"Sam," said he plucking at the others sleeve in the darkness, "Sam, tell
+me, what was Buck doing--before he went away. Was it all straight? Was he
+in the same business with you?"
+
+Sam breathed heavily but did not answer. At last with difficulty he
+answered a gruff, "Nope!"
+
+"What was it, Sam? Won't you tell me?"
+
+"It would be snitchin'."
+
+"Not to me, Sam. You know I belong to you all."
+
+"But you've got new notions."
+
+"Yes," admitted Michael, "I can't help that, but I don't go back on you, do
+I?"
+
+"No, you don't go back on we'uns, that's so. But you don't like we's
+doin's."
+
+"Never mind. Tell me, Sam. I think I must know."
+
+"He kep a gamein' den--"
+
+"Oh, Sam!" Michael's voice was stricken, and his great athletic hand
+gripped Sam's hard skinny one, and Sam in the darkness gripped back.
+
+"I knowed you'd feel thet way," he mourned as if the fault were all in his
+telling. "I wisht I hadn't 'a tole yer."
+
+"Never mind, Sam, you couldn't help it, and I suppose I wouldn't have known
+the difference myself if I hadn't gone away. We mustn't judge Buck harshly.
+He'll see it the other way by and by."
+
+Sam straightened perceptibly. There was something in this speech that put
+him in the same class with Michael. He had never before had any qualms of
+conscience concerning gambling, but now he found himself almost unawares
+arrayed against it.
+
+"I guess mebbe!" he said comfortingly, and then seeking to change the
+subject. "Say, is dat guy in dere goin' along to de farm?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, dat ike you lef' in de room. Is he goin' down 'long when wees go?"
+
+"Oh, Will French! No, Sam. He doesn't know anything about it yet. I may
+tell him sometime, but he doesn't need that. He is studying to be a lawyer.
+Perhaps some day if he gets interested he'll help do what I want for the
+alley, and all the other alleys in the city; make better laws and see that
+they're enforced."
+
+"Laws!" said Sam in a startled voice. "What laws!"
+
+Laws were his natural enemies he thought.
+
+"Laws for better tenement houses, more room and more windows, better air,
+cleaner streets, room for grass and flowers, pure milk and meat, and less
+crowding and dirt. Understand?"
+
+It was the first time Michael had gone so deep into his plans with Sam, and
+he longed now to have his comradeship in this hope too.
+
+"Oh, sure!" said Sam much relieved that Michael had not mentioned laws
+about gambling dens and pickpockets. Sam might be willing to reform his own
+course in the brilliant wake of Michael but as yet he had not reached the
+point where he cared to see vice and dishonesty swept off the globe.
+
+They went slowly back to the white room to find Will French leading a
+chorus of small urchins in the latest popular melody while they kept time
+with an awkward shuffle of their ill-shod feet.
+
+Sam growled: "Cut it out, kids, you scratch de floor," and Will French
+subsided with apologies.
+
+"I never thought of the floor, Endicott. Say, you ought to have a gymnasium
+and a swimming pool here."
+
+Michael laughed.
+
+"I wish we had," he declared, "but I'd begin on a bath-room. We need that
+first of all."
+
+"Well, let's get one," said Will eagerly. "That wouldn't cost so much. We
+could get some people to contribute a little. I know a man that has a big
+plumbing establishment. He'd do a little something. I mean to tell him
+about it. Is there any place it could be put?"
+
+Sam followed them wondering, listening, interested, as they went out
+into the hall to see the little dark hole which might with ingenuity be
+converted into a bath-room, and while he leaned back against the door-jamb,
+hands in his pockets, he studied the face of the newcomer.
+
+"Guess dat guy's all right," he reassured Michael as he helped him turn the
+lights out a little later, while Will waited on the doorstep whistling a
+new tune to his admiring following. Will had caught "de kids."
+
+"I say, Endicott," he said as they walked up the noisy midnight street and
+turned into the avenue, "why don't you get Hester to go down there and sing
+sometime? Sunday afternoon. She'd go. Ask her."
+
+And that night was the beginning of outside help for Michael's mission.
+
+Hester fell into the habit of going down Sunday afternoons, and soon she
+had an eager following of sad-eyed women, and eager little children; and
+Will French spent his leisure hours in hunting up tricks and games and
+puzzles, for "the kids."
+
+Meantime, the account he had given to Holt and Holt of the way Michael
+spent his evenings, was not without fruit.
+
+About a week after French's first visit to the alley, the senior Mr. Holt
+paused beside Michael's desk one afternoon just before going out of the
+office and laid a bit of paper in his hand.
+
+"French tells me you're interested in work in the slums," he said in the
+same tone he used to give Michael an order for his daily routine. "I'd
+like to help a little if you can use that." He passed on out of the office
+before Michael had fully comprehended what had been said. The young man
+looked down at the paper and saw it was a check made out to himself for one
+hundred dollars!
+
+With a quick exclamation of gratitude he was on his feet and out into the
+hall after his employer.
+
+"That's all right, Endicott. I don't get as much time as I'd like to look
+after the charities, and when I see a good thing I like to give it a boost.
+Call on me if you need money for any special scheme. And I'll mention it to
+some of my clients occasionally," said the old lawyer, well pleased with
+Michael's gratitude.
+
+He did, and right royally did the clients respond. Every little while a
+ten-dollar bill or a five, and now and then a check for fifty would find
+its way to Michael's desk; for Will French, thoroughly interested, kept
+Holt and Holt well supplied with information concerning what was needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+Before the winter was over Michael was able to put in the bath-room and had
+bought a plow and a number of necessary farm implements, and secured the
+services of a man who lived near Old Orchard to do some early plowing and
+planting. He was able also to buy seeds and fertilizer, enough at least to
+start his experiment; and toward spring, he took advantage of a holiday,
+and with Sam and a carpenter went down to the farm and patched up the old
+house to keep out the rain.
+
+After that a few cots, some boxes for chairs and tables, some cheap
+comfortables for cool nights, some dishes and cooking utensils from the
+ten-cent store, and the place would be ready for his alley-colony when he
+should dare to bring them down. A canvas cot and a wadded comfortable would
+be luxury to any of them. The only question was, would they be contented
+out of the city?
+
+Michael had read many articles about the feasibility of taking the poor of
+the cities into the country, and he knew that experience had shown they
+were in most cases miserable to get back again. He believed in his heart
+that this might be different if the conditions were made right. In the
+first place they must have an environment full of new interest to supply
+the place of the city's rush, and then they must have some great object
+which they would be eager to attain. He felt, too, that they should be
+prepared beforehand for their new life.
+
+To this end he had been for six months spending two or three hours a week
+with five or six young fellows Sam had tolled in. He had brought the
+agricultural papers to the room, and made much of the illustrations. The
+boys as a rule could not read, so he read to them, or rather translated
+into their own slang-ful English. He told them what wonders had been
+attained by farming in the right way. As these fellows had little notion
+about farming in any way, or little knowledge of farm products save as
+they came to them through the markets in their very worst forms, it became
+necessary to bring cabbages and apples, and various other fruits and
+vegetables for their inspection.
+
+One night he brought three or four gnarled, little green-skinned, sour,
+speckled apples, poorly flavored. He called attention to them very
+carefully, and then because an apple was a treat, however poor it might be,
+he asked them to notice the flavor as they ate. Then he produced three or
+four magnificent specimens of apple-hood, crimson and yellow, with polished
+skin and delicious flavor, and set them in a row on the table beside some
+more of the little specked apples. They looked like a sunset beside a
+ditch. The young men drew around the beautiful apples admiringly, feeling
+of their shiny streaks as if they half thought them painted, and listening
+to the story of their development from the little sour ugly specimens they
+had just been eating. When it came to the cutting up of the perfect apples
+every man of them took an intelligent pleasure in the delicious fruit.
+
+Other nights, with the help of Will and Hester, Michael gave demonstrations
+of potatoes, and other vegetables, with regular lessons on how to get the
+best results with these particular products. Hester managed in some skilful
+manner to serve a very tasty refreshment from roasted potatoes, cooked just
+right, at the same time showing the difference in the quality between the
+soggy potatoes full of dry rot, and those that were grown under the right
+conditions. Occasionally a cup of coffee or some delicate sandwiches helped
+out on a demonstration, of lettuce or celery or cold cabbage in the form
+of slaw, and the light refreshments served with the agricultural lessons
+became a most attractive feature of Michael's evenings. More and more young
+fellows dropped in to listen to the lesson and enjoy the plentiful "eats"
+as they called them. When they reached the lessons on peas and beans the
+split pea soup and good rich bean soup were ably appreciated.
+
+Not that all took the lessons with equal eagerness, but Michael began to
+feel toward spring that his original five with Sam as their leader would
+do comparatively intelligent work on the farm, the story of which had been
+gradually told them from night to night, until they were quite eager to
+know if they might be included in those who were to be pioneers in the
+work.
+
+Will French faithfully reported the condition of the work, and more and
+more friends and clients of the office would stop at Michael's desk and
+chat with him for a moment about the work, and always leave something with
+him to help it along. Michael's eyes shone and his heart beat high with
+hopes in these days.
+
+But there was still a further work for him to do before his crude
+apprentices should be ready to be sent down into the wilds of nature.
+
+So Michael began one evening to tell them of the beauty and the wonder
+of the world. One night he used a cocoon as illustration and for three
+evenings they all came with bated breath and watched the strange little
+insignificant roll, almost doubting Michael's veracity, yet full of
+curiosity, until one night it burst its bonds and floated up into the white
+ceiling, its pale green, gorgeously marked wings working a spell upon their
+hearts, that no years could ever make them quite forget. It was the miracle
+of life and they had never seen it nor heard of it before.
+
+Another night he brought a singing bird in a cage, and pictures of other
+birds who were naturally wild. He began to teach them the ways of the birds
+they would see in New Jersey, how to tell their songs apart, where to look
+for their nests; all the queer little wonderful things that a bird lover
+knows, and that Michael because of his long habits of roaming about the
+woods knew by heart. The little bird in its cage stayed in the yellow and
+white room, and strange to say thrived, becoming a joy and a wonder to
+all visitors, and a marvel to those who lived in the court because of its
+continuous volume of brilliant song, bursting from a heart that seemed to
+be too full of happiness and must bubble over into music. The "kids" and
+even the older fellows felt a proprietorship in it, and liked to come and
+stand beneath the cage and call to it as it answered "peep" and peeked
+between the gilded bars to watch them.
+
+One night, with the help of Will French who had some wealthy friends,
+Michael borrowed a large picture of a sunset, and spoke to them about the
+sunlight and its effects on growing things, and the wonder of its departure
+for the night.
+
+By this time they would listen in awed silence to anything Michael said,
+though the picture was perhaps one too many for most of them. Sam, however,
+heard with approval, and afterwards went up reverently and laid his finger
+on the crimson and the purple and the gold of the picture. Sam knew, and
+understood, for he had seen the real thing. Then he turned to the others
+and said:
+
+"Say, fellers, it's aw-right. You wait till yer see one. Fine ez silk, an'
+twicet as nateral."
+
+One big dark fellow who had lately taken to coming to the gatherings,
+turned scornfully away, and replied: "Aw shucks! I don't see nodding in
+it!" but loyalty to Michael prevented others who might have secretly
+favored this view from expressing it, and the big dark fellow found himself
+in the minority.
+
+And so the work went on. Spring was coming, and with it the end of Jim's
+"term," and the beginning of Michael's experiment on the farm.
+
+Meantime Michael was working hard at his law, and studying half the
+night when he came back from the alley work. If he had not had an iron
+constitution, and thirteen years behind him of healthy out-door life, with
+plenty of sleep and exercise and good food, he could not have stood it. As
+it was, the hard work was good for him, for it kept him from brooding over
+himself, and his own hopeless love of the little girl who was far across
+the water.
+
+Some weeks after Christmas there had come a brief note from Starr, his name
+written in her hand, the address in her father's.
+
+"Dear Michael," it read,--
+
+"I am just almost sure that I am indebted to you for the lovely little
+sprig of holly that reached me on Christmas. I have tried and tried to
+think who the sender might be, for you see I didn't know the writing, or
+rather printing. But to-day it fell down from over the picture where I had
+fastened, it on the wall, and I noticed what I had not seen before, 'A
+Happy Christmas' in the very tiny little letters of the message cut or
+scratched on the under side of the stem; and the letters reminded me of you
+and the charming little surprises you used to send me long ago from Florida
+when I was a little girl. Then all at once I was sure it was you who sent
+the holly, and I am sitting right down to write and thank you for it. You
+see I was very lonesome and homesick that Christmas morning, for most of
+the girls in the school had gone home for Christmas, and mamma, who had
+been intending to come and take me away to Paris for the holidays, had
+written that she was not well and couldn't come after all, so I knew I
+would have to be here all through the gay times by myself. I was feeling
+quite doleful even with the presents that mamma sent me, until I opened the
+little box and saw the dear little bright holly berries; that cheered me up
+and made me think of home. I kept it on my desk all day so that the bright
+berries would make me feel Christmassy, and just before dinner that night
+what do you think happened? Why, my dear daddy came to surprise me, and we
+took the loveliest trip together, to Venice and Florence and Rome. It was
+beautiful! I wish you could have been along and seen everything. I know you
+would have enjoyed it. I must not take the time to write about it because I
+ought to be studying. This is a very pleasant place and a good school but I
+would rather be at home, and I shall be glad when I am done and allowed to
+come back to my own country.
+
+"Thanking you ever so much for the pretty little Christmas reminder, for
+you see I am sure you sent it, and wishing you a belated Happy New Year, I
+am
+
+"Your friend,
+
+"STARR DELEVAN ENDICOTT."
+
+Michael read and re-read the letter, treasured the thoughts and visions
+it brought him, pondered the question of whether he might answer it, and
+decided that he had no right. Then he put it away with his own heartache,
+plunging into his work with redoubled energy, and taking an antidote of so
+many pages of Blackstone when his thoughts lingered on forbidden subjects.
+So the winter fled away and spring came stealing on apace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+As Michael had no definite knowledge of either his exact age, or what month
+his birthday came, there could be no day set for his coming of age. The
+little information that could be gathered from his own memory of how many
+summers and winters he had passed showed that he was approximately seven
+years old at the time of the shooting affray. If that were correct it would
+make him between nineteen and twenty at the time of his graduation.
+
+On the first day of July following his first winter in New York Michael
+received a brief letter from Mr. Endicott, containing a check for a
+thousand dollars, with congratulations on his majority and a request that
+he call at the office the next day.
+
+Michael, eager, grateful, overwhelmed, was on hand to the minute appointed.
+
+The wealthy business man, whose banking affairs had long since righted
+themselves, turned from his multifarious duties, and rested his eyes upon
+the young fellow, listening half-amused to his eager thanks.
+
+The young man in truth was a sight to rest weary eyes.
+
+The winter in New York had put new lines into his face and deepened the
+wells of his blue eyes; they were the work of care and toil and suffering,
+but--they had made a man's face out of a boy's fresh countenance. There was
+power in the fine brow, strength in the firm, well-moulded chin, and both
+kindliness and unselfishness in the lovely curves of his pleasant lips. The
+city barber had been artist enough not to cut the glorious hair too short
+while yet giving it the latest clean cut curve behind the ears and in the
+neck. By instinct Michael's hands were well cared for. Endicott's tailor
+had looked out for the rest.
+
+"That's all right, son," Endicott cut Michael's sentence short. "I'm
+pleased with the way you've been doing. Holt tells me he never had a more
+promising student in his office. He says you're cut out for the law, and
+you're going to be a success. But what's this they tell me about you
+spending your evenings in the slums? I don't like the sound of that. Better
+cut that out."
+
+Michael began to tell in earnest protesting words of what he was trying to
+do, but Endicott put up an impatient hand:
+
+"That's all very well, son, I've no doubt they appreciate your help and all
+that, and it's been very commendable in you to give your time, but now you
+owe yourself something, and you owe the world something. You've got to turn
+out a great lawyer and prove to the world that people from that district
+are worth helping. That's the best way in the long run to help those
+people. Give them into somebody else's hands now. You've done your part.
+When you get to be a rich man you can give them something now and then if
+you like, but it's time to cut out the work now. That sort of thing might
+be very popular in a political leader, but you've got your way to make and
+it's time you gave your evenings to culture, and to going out into society
+somewhat. Here's a list of concerts and lectures for next winter. You ought
+to go to them all. I'm sorry I didn't think of it this winter, but perhaps
+it was as well not to go too deep at the start. However, you ought to waste
+no more time. I've put your application in for season tickets for those
+things on that list, and you'll receive tickets in due time. There's an art
+exhibition or two where there are good things to be seen. You've got to see
+and hear everything if you want to be a thoroughly educated man. I said
+a word or two about you here and there, and I think you'll receive some
+invitations worth accepting pretty soon. You'll need a dress suit, and I
+had word sent to the tailor about it this morning when it occurred to me--"
+
+"But," said Michael amazed and perturbed, "I do not belong in society.
+People do not want one like me there. If they knew they would not ask me."
+
+"Bosh! All bosh! Didn't I tell you to cut that out? People don't know and
+you've no need to tell them. They think you are a distant relative of mine
+if they think anything about it, and you're not to tell them you are not.
+You owe it to me to keep still about it. If I guarantee you're all right
+that ought to suit anybody."
+
+"I couldn't go where people thought I was more than I was," said Michael,
+head up, eyes shining, his firmest expression on his mouth, but intense
+trouble in his eyes. It was hard to go against his benefactor.
+
+"You got all those foolish notions from working down there in the slums.
+You're got a false idea of yourself and a false notion of right and wrong.
+It's high time you stopped going there. After you've been to a dance or two
+and a few theatre suppers, and got acquainted with some nice girls who'll
+invite you to their house-parties you'll forget you ever had anything to do
+with the slums. I insist that you give that work up at once. Promise me you
+will not go near the place again. Write them a letter--"
+
+"I couldn't do that!" said Michael, his face expressive of anguish fighting
+with duty.
+
+"Couldn't! Nonsense. There is no such word. I say I want you to do it.
+Haven't I proved my right to make that request?"
+
+"You have," said Michael, dropping his sorrowing eyes slowly, and taking
+out the folded check from his pocket. "You have the right to ask it, but I
+have no right to do what you ask. I have begun the work, and it would not
+be right to stop it. Indeed, I couldn't. If you knew what it means to those
+fellows--but I cannot keep this if you feel that way! I was going to use it
+for the work--but now--"
+
+Michael's pauses were eloquent. Endicott was deeply touched but he would
+not show it. He was used to having his own way, and it irritated, while it
+pleased him in a way, to have Michael so determined. As Michael stopped
+talking he laid the check sadly on the desk.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Endicott irritably, "this has nothing to do with the
+check. That was your birthday present. Use it as you like. What I have
+given I have given and I won't take back even if I have nothing more to do
+with you from this time forth. I have no objection to your giving away as
+much money as you can spare to benevolent institutions, but I say that I do
+object to your wasting your time and your reputation in such low places.
+It will injure you eventually, it can't help it. I want you to take your
+evenings for society and for lectures and concerts--"
+
+"I will go to the concerts and lectures gladly," said Michael gravely.
+"I can see they will be fine for me, and I thank you very much for the
+opportunity, but that will not hinder my work. It begins always rather late
+in the evening, and there are other times--"
+
+"You've no business to be staying out in places like that after the hour of
+closing of decent places of amusement."
+
+Michael refrained from saying that he had several times noticed society
+ladies returning from balls and entertainments when he was on his way home.
+
+"I simply can't have it if I'm to stand back of you."
+
+"I'm, sorry," said Michael. "You won't ever know how sorry I am. It was so
+good to know that I had somebody who cared a little for me. I shall miss it
+very much. It has been almost like having a real father. Do you mean that
+you will have to give up the--fatherliness?"
+
+Endicott's voice shook with mingled emotions. It couldn't be that this
+young upstart who professed to be so grateful and for whom he had done so
+much would actually for the sake of a few wretched beings and a sentimental
+feeling that he belonged in the slums and ought to do something for them,
+run the risk of angering him effectually. It could not be!
+
+"It means that I shall not do any of the things I had planned to do for
+you, if you persist in refusing my most reasonable request. Listen, young
+man--"
+
+Michael noticed with keen pain that he had dropped the customary "son" from
+his conversation, and it gave him a queer choky sensation of having been
+cut off from the earth.
+
+"I had planned"--the keen eyes searched the beautiful manly face before him
+and the man's voice took on an insinuating tone; the tone he used when he
+wished to buy up some political pull; the tone that never failed to buy his
+man. Yet even as he spoke he felt an intuition that here was a man whom he
+could not buy--
+
+"I had planned to do a good many things for you. You will be through your
+studies pretty soon and be ready to set up for yourself. Had you thought
+ahead enough to know whether you would like a partnership in some old firm
+or whether you want to set up for yourself?"
+
+Michael's voice was grave and troubled but he answered at once:
+
+"I would like to set up for myself, sir. There are things I must do, and I
+do not know if a partner would feel as I do about them."
+
+"Very well," said Endicott with satisfaction. He could not but be pleased
+with the straightforward, decided way in which the boy was going ahead and
+shaping his own life. It showed he had character. There was nothing Mr.
+Endicott prized more than character--or what he called character: "Very
+well, when you get ready to set up for yourself, and I don't think that
+is going to be so many years off from what I hear, I will provide you an
+office, fully furnished, in the most desirable quarter of the city, and
+start you off as you ought to be started in order to win. I will introduce
+you to some of my best friends, and put lucrative business in your way,
+business with the great corporations that will bring you into immediate
+prominence; then I will propose your name for membership in two or three
+good clubs. Now those things I will do because I believe you have it in you
+to make good; but you'll need the boosting. Every man in this city does.
+Genius alone can't work you up to the top; but I can give you what you need
+and I mean to do it, only I feel that you on your part ought to be willing
+to comply with the conditions."
+
+There was a deep silence in the room. Michael was struggling to master his
+voice, but when he spoke it was husky with suppressed feeling:
+
+"It is a great plan," he said. "It is just like you. I thank you, sir, for
+the thought, with all my heart. It grieves me more than anything I ever had
+to do to say no to you, but I cannot do as you ask. I cannot give up what
+I am trying to do. I feel it would be wrong for me. I feel that it is
+imperative, sir!"
+
+"Cannot! Humph! Cannot! You are like all the little upstart reformers,
+filled with conceit of course. You think there is no one can do the work
+but yourself! I will pay some one to do what you are doing! Will that
+satisfy you?"
+
+Michael slowly shook his head.
+
+"No one could do it for pay," he said with conviction. "It must be done
+from--perhaps it is love--I do not know. But anyway, no one was doing it,
+and I must, for THEY ARE MY PEOPLE!"
+
+As he said this the young man lifted his head with that angel-proud look of
+his that defied a universe to set him from his purpose, and Endicott while
+he secretly reveled in the boy's firmness and purpose, yet writhed that he
+could not control this strength as he would.
+
+"Your people! Bosh! You don't even know that! You may be the son of the
+richest man in New York for all you know."
+
+"The more shame mine, then, if he left me where you found me! Mr. Endicott,
+have you ever been down in the alley where I used to live? Do you know the
+conditions down there?"
+
+"No, nor I don't want to go. And what's more I don't want you to go again.
+Whatever you were or are, you ought to see that you are mine now. Why,
+youngster, how do you know but you were kidnapped for a ransom, and the
+game went awry? There are a thousand explanations of your unknown presence
+there. You may have been lost--"
+
+"Then have I not a debt to the people with whom I lived!"
+
+"Oh, poppycock!" exclaimed the man angrily. "We'd better close the
+conversation. You understand how I feel. If you think it over and change
+your mind come back and tell me within the week. I sail Saturday for
+Europe. I may not be back in three or four months. If you don't make
+up your mind before I go you can write to me here at the office and my
+secretary will forward it. You have disappointed me beyond anything I could
+have dreamed. I am sure when you think it over you will see how wrong you
+are and change your mind. Until then, good-bye!"
+
+Michael arose dismissed, but he could not go that way.
+
+"I shall not change my mind," he said sadly, "but it is terrible not to
+have you understand. Won't you let me tell you all about it? Won't you let
+me explain?"
+
+"No, I don't want to hear any explanations. There is only one thing for me
+to understand and that is that you think more of a set of vagabonds in an
+alley than you do of my request!"
+
+"No! That is not true!" said Michael. "I think more of you than of any
+living man. I do not believe I could love you more if you were my own
+father. I would give my life for you this minute--"
+
+"There is an old word somewhere that says, 'To obey is better than
+sacrifice.' Most people think they would rather be great heroes than do the
+simple every-day things demanded of them. The test does not always prove
+that they would--"
+
+Michael's head went up almost haughtily, but there were great tears in his
+eyes. Endicott dropped his own gaze from that sorrowful face. He knew his
+words were false and cruel. He knew that Michael would not hesitate a
+second to give his life. But the man could not bear to be withstood.
+
+"If you feel that way I cannot take this!" Michael sadly, proudly held out
+the check.
+
+"As you please!" said Endicott curtly. "There's the waste-basket. Put it in
+if you like. It isn't mine any longer. You may spend it as you please. My
+conditions have nothing to do with what is past. If you do not prize my
+gift to you by all means throw it away."
+
+With a glance that would have broken Endicott's heart if he had not been
+too stubborn to look up, Michael slowly folded the check and put it back
+into his pocket.
+
+"I do prize it," he said, "and I prize it because you gave it to me. It
+meant and always will mean a great deal to me."
+
+"H'm!"
+
+"There is one more thing perhaps I ought to tell you," hesitated Michael
+"The farm. I am using it in my work for those people. Perhaps you will not
+approve of that--"
+
+"I have nothing further to do with the farm. You bought it, I believe. You
+desired to pay for it when you were earning enough money to be able to do
+so. That time has not yet come, therefore nothing further need be said. It
+is your farm and you may use it as a pleasure park for pigs if you like. I
+don't go back on my bargains. Good afternoon."
+
+Endicott turned to the 'phone, took up the receiver and called up a number.
+Michael saw that the conversation was ended. Slowly, with heavy step and
+heavier heart, he went out of the office.
+
+There were new lines of sadness on Michael's face that day, and when he
+went down to the alley that evening his gentleness with all the little
+"kids," and with the older ones, was so great that they looked at him more
+than once with a new kind of awe and wonder. It was the gentleness of
+sacrifice, of sacrifice for them, that was bringing with it the pain of
+love.
+
+Old Sal who came over to "look in" that evening, as she put it, shook her
+head as she stumped back to her rejuvenated room with its gaudy flowered
+wall, bit of white curtain and pot of flowers in the window, all the work
+of Michael and his follower Sam.
+
+"I'm thinkin' he'll disuppeer one o' these days. Ye'll wake up an' he'll
+be gahn. He's not of this worrld. He'll sprid his wings an' away. He's a
+man-angel, thet's wot he is!"
+
+Michael went home that night and wrote a letter to Mr. Endicott that would
+have broken a heart of stone, telling his inmost thought; showing his love
+and anguish in every sentence; and setting forth simply and unassumingly
+the wonderful work he was doing in the alley.
+
+But though he waited in anxiety day after day he received not a word of
+reply. Endicott read the letter every word, and fairly gloated over the
+boy's strength, but he was too stubborn to let it be known. Also he rather
+enjoyed the test to which he was putting him.
+
+Michael even watched the outgoing vessels on Saturday, looked up the
+passenger lists, went down to the wharf and tried to see him before he
+sailed, but for some reason was unable to get in touch with him.
+
+Standing sadly on the wharf as the vessel sailed he caught sight of
+Endicott, but though he was sure he had been seen he received no sign of
+recognition, and he turned away sick at heart, and feeling as if he had for
+conscience's sake stabbed one that loved him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Those were trying days for Michael.
+
+The weather had turned suddenly very warm. The office was sometimes
+stifling. The daily routine got upon his nerves, he who had never before
+known that he had nerves. There was always the aching thought that Starr
+was gone from him--forever--and now he had by his own word cut loose from
+her father--forever! His literal heart saw no hope in the future.
+
+About that time, too, another sorrow fell upon him. He was glancing over
+the paper one morning on his way to the office, and his eye fell on the
+following item:
+
+    LONE TRAIN BANDIT HURT IN FIGHT AFTER GETTING LOOT
+
+    Captured by Conductor After He Had Rifled Mail Bags on Union Pacific
+    Express
+
+    Topeka, Kan., July--. A daring bandit was captured last night a
+    he had robbed the mail car on Union Pacific train No. ---- which left
+    Kansas City for Denver at 10 o'clock.
+
+    The train known as the Denver Express, carrying heavy mail, was just
+    leaving Kansas City, when a man ran across the depot platform and
+    leaped into the mail car through the open door. The clerk in charge
+    faced the man, who aimed a revolver at him. He was commanded to bind
+    and gag his five associates, and obeyed. The robber then went through
+    all the registered pouches, stuffing the packages into his pockets.
+    Then he commanded the clerk to untie his comrades.
+
+    At Bonner Springs where the train made a brief stop the bandit ordered
+    the men to continue their work, so as not to attract the attention of
+    persons at the station. When Lawrence was reached the robber dropped
+    from the car and ran toward the rear of the train. The conductor
+    summoned two Lawrence policemen and all three followed. After a quick
+    race, and a struggle during which the bandit's arm was broken, he was
+    captured. It appears that the prisoner is an old offender, for whom the
+    police of New York have been searching in vain for the past ten months.
+    He is known in the lower districts of New York City as "Fighting Buck,"
+    and has a list of offenses against him too numerous to mention.
+
+Michael did not know why his eye had been attracted to the item nor why he
+had read the article through to the finish. It was not the kind of thing
+he cared to read; yet of late all crime and criminals had held a sort of
+sorrowful fascination for him. "It is what I might have done if I had
+stayed in the alley," he would say to himself when he heard of some
+terrible crime that had been committed.
+
+But when he reached the end of the article and saw Buck's name his heart
+seemed to stand still.
+
+Buck! The one of all his old comrades whom he had loved the most, who had
+loved him, and sacrificed for him; to whom he had written and sent money;
+whose brain was brighter and whose heart bigger than any of the others; for
+whom he had searched in vain, and found only to lose before he had seen
+him; whom he had hoped yet to find and to save. Buck had done this, and was
+caught in his guilt. And a government offense, too, robbing the mail bags!
+It would mean long, hard service. It would mean many years before Michael
+could help him to the right kind of life, even if ever.
+
+He asked permission to leave the office that afternoon, and took the train
+down to the farm where Sam had been staying for some weeks. He read the
+article to him, hoping against hope that Sam would say there was some
+mistake; would know somehow that Buck was safe. But Sam listened with
+lowering countenance, and when the reading was finished he swore a great
+oath, such as he had not uttered before in Michael's presence, and Michael
+knew that the story must be true.
+
+Nothing could be done now. The law must have its course, but Michael's
+heart was heavy with the weight of what might have been if he could but
+have found Buck sooner. The next day he secured permission to begin his
+vacation at once, and in spite of great need of his presence at Old Orchard
+he took the train for Kansas. He felt that he must see Buck at once.
+
+All during that long dismal ride Michael's heart was beating over and over
+with the story of his own life. "I might have done this thing. I would have
+dared and thought it brave if I had not been taught better. I might be even
+now in jail with a broken arm and a useless life: the story of my crime
+might be bandied through the country in the newspapers if it had not been
+for Mr. Endicott--and little Starr! And yet I have hurt his feelings and
+alienated his great kindness by refusing his request. Was there no other
+way? Was there no other way?" And always his conscience answered, "There
+was no other way!"
+
+Michael, armed with a letter from the senior Holt to a powerful member
+of western municipal affairs, found entrance to Buck in his miserable
+confinement quite possible. He dawned upon his one-time friend, out of the
+darkness of the cell, as a veritable angel of light. Indeed, Buck, waking
+from a feverish sleep on his hard little cot, moaning and cursing with the
+pain his arm was giving him, started up and looked at him with awe and
+horror! The light from the corridor caught the gold in Michael's hair and
+made his halo perfect; and Buck thought for the moment that some new terror
+had befallen him, and he was in the hands of the angel of death sent to
+summon him to a final judgment for all his misdeeds.
+
+But Michael met his old friend with tenderness, and a few phrases that had
+been wont to express their childish loyalty; and Buck, weakened by the
+fever and the pain, and more than all by his own defeat and capture, broke
+down and wept, and Michael wept with him.
+
+"It might have been me instead of you, Buck. If I had stayed behind, I'd
+have done all those things. I see it clearly. I might have been lying here
+and you out and free. Buck, if it could give you my chance in life, and
+help you see it all as I do I'd gladly lie here and take your place."
+
+"Mikky! Mikky!" cried Buck. "It's me own Mikky! You was allus willin' to
+take de rubs! But, Mikky, ef you'd hed de trainin' you'd hev made de fine
+robber! You'd hev been a peach an' no mistake!"
+
+Michael had found a soft spot in the warden's heart and succeeded in doing
+a number of little things for Buck's comfort. He hunted up the chaplain and
+secured a promise from him to teach Buck to read and write, and also to
+read to him all letters that Buck received, until such a time as he should
+be able to read them for himself. He sent a pot of roses with buds and full
+bloom to perfume the dark cell, and he promised to write often; while Buck
+on his part could only say over and over; "Oh, Mikky! Mikky! Ef we wos oney
+kids agin! Oh, Mikky, I'll git out o' here yit an' find ye. Ye'll not be
+ashamed o' me. Ef I oney hadn't a bungled de job. It were a bum job! Mikky!
+A bum job!"
+
+Michael saw that there was little use in talking to Buck about his sin.
+Buck had nothing whatever to build upon in the line of morals. To be loyal
+to his friends, and to do his "work" so that he would not get caught were
+absolutely the only articles in his creed. To get ahead of the rich, to
+take from them that which was theirs if he could, regardless of life or
+consequences, that was virtue; the rich were enemies, and his daring code
+of honor gave them the credit of equal courage with himself. They must
+outwit him or lose. If they died it was "all in the day's work" and their
+loss. When his turn came he would take his medicine calmly. But the trouble
+with Buck now was that he had "bungled the job." It was a disgrace on his
+profession. Things had been going against him lately, and he was "down on
+his luck."
+
+Michael went back from the West feeling that the brief time allowed him
+with Buck was all too short for what he wanted to do for him; yet he felt
+that it had been worth the journey. Buck appreciated his sympathy, if he
+did not have an adequate sense of his own sinfulness. Michael had talked
+and pitied and tried to make Buck see, but Buck saw not, and Michael went
+home to hope and write and try to educate Buck through sheer love. It was
+all he saw to do.
+
+It was about this time that Michael began to receive money in small sums,
+anonymously, through the mail. "For your work" the first was labelled and
+the remittances that followed had no inscriptions. They were not always
+addressed in the same hand, and never did he know the writing. Sometimes
+there would be a ten-dollar bill, sometimes a twenty, and often more,
+and they came irregularly, enclosed in a thin, inner envelope of foreign
+looking paper. Michael wondered sometimes if Starr could have sent them,
+but that was impossible of course, for she knew nothing of his work,
+and they were always postmarked New York. He discovered that such thin
+foreign-looking envelopes could be had in New York, and after that he
+abandoned all idea of trying to solve the mystery. It was probably some
+queer, kind person who did not wish to be known. He accepted the help
+gladly and broadened his plans for the farm accordingly.
+
+Sam and his five friends had gone down early in the spring, bunking in the
+old house, and enjoying the outing immensely. Under Sam's captaincy, and
+the tutelage of an old farmer whom Michael had found, who could not work
+much himself but could direct, the work had gone forward; Michael himself
+coming down Saturdays, and such of the tail ends of the afternoons as he
+could get. It is true that many mistakes were made through ignorance, and
+more through stupidity. It is true that no less than five times the whole
+gang went on a strike until Michael should return to settle some dispute
+between the new scientific farming that he had taught them, and some old
+superstition, or clumsy practice of the farmer's. But on the whole they did
+tolerably good work.
+
+The farm colony had been meantime increasing. Michael picked them up in
+the alley; they came to him and asked to be taken on for a trial. They had
+heard of the experiment through Sam, or one of the other boys who had come
+back to the city for a day on some errand for the farm.
+
+One glorious summer morning Michael took ten small eager newsboys down
+to pick wild strawberries for the day, and they came back dirty, tired,
+strawberry streaked, and happy, and loudly sang the praises of Old Orchard
+as though it had been a Heaven. After that Michael had no trouble in
+transplanting any one he wished to take with him.
+
+He found a poor wretch who had lately moved with his family to one of the
+crowded tenements in the alley. He was sodden in drink and going to
+pieces fast. Michael sobered him down, found that he used to be a master
+carpenter, and forthwith transplanted him to Old Orchard, family and all.
+
+Under the hand of the skilled carpenter there sprang up immediately a
+colony of tents and later small one-roomed shacks or bungalows. Michael
+bought lumber and found apprentices to help, and the carpenter of the
+colony repaired barns and outhouses, fences, or built shacks, whenever the
+head of affairs saw fit to need another.
+
+The only person in the whole alley whom Michael had invited in vain to the
+farm was old Sally. She had steadily refused to leave her gaily papered
+room, her curtained window and her geranium. It was a symbol of "ould
+Ireland" to her, and she felt afraid of this new place of Michael's. It
+seemed to her superstitious fancy like an immediate door to a Heaven, from
+which she felt herself barred by her life. It assumed a kind of terror to
+her thoughts. She was not ready to leave her little bit of life and take
+chances even for Michael. And so old Sal sat on her doorstep and watched
+the alley dwellers come and go, listening with interest to each new account
+of the farm, but never willing to see for herself. Perhaps the secret of
+her hesitation after all went deeper than superstition. She had received
+private information that Old Orchard had no Rum Shop around the corner. Old
+Sally could not run any risks, so she stayed at home.
+
+But the carpenter's wife was glad to cook for the men when the busy days of
+planting and weeding and harvesting came, and the colony grew and grew. Two
+or three other men came down with their families, and helped the carpenter
+to build them little houses, with a bit of garden back, and a bed of
+flowers in front. They could see the distant sea from their tiny porches,
+and the river wound its salty silver way on the other hand. It was a great
+change from the alley. Not all could stand it, but most of them bore the
+summer test well. It would be when winter set its white distance upon them,
+chilled the flowers to slumber, and stopped the labor that the testing time
+would come; and Michael was thinking about that.
+
+He began hunting out helpers for his purposes.
+
+He found a man skilled in agricultural arts and secured his services to
+hold a regular school of agriculture during the winter for the men. He
+found a poor student at Princeton who could run up on the train daily and
+give simple lessons in reading and arithmetic. He impressed it upon Sam and
+the other young men that unless they could read for themselves enough to
+keep up with the new discoveries in the science other farmers would get
+ahead of them and grow bigger potatoes and sweeter ears of corn than they
+did. He kept up a continual sunny stream of eager converse with them about
+what they were going to do, and how the place was going to grow, until they
+felt as if they owned the earth and meant to show the world how well they
+were running it. In short, he simply poured his own spirit of enthusiasm
+into them, and made the whole hard summer of unaccustomed labor one great
+game; and when the proceeds from their first simple crops came in from the
+sale of such products as they did not need for their own use in the colony,
+Michael carefully divided it among his various workmen and at his wish they
+went in a body and each started a bank account at the little National Bank
+of the town. It was a very little of course, absurdly little, but it made
+the workers feel like millionaires, and word of the successes went back to
+the city, and more and more the people were willing to come down, until by
+fall there were thirty-eight men, women and children, all told, living on
+the farm.
+
+Of course that made little appreciable difference in the population of the
+alley, for as soon as one family moved out another was ready to move in,
+and there was plenty of room for Michael's work to go on. Nevertheless,
+there were thirty-eight souls on the way to a better knowledge of life,
+with clean and wholesome surroundings and a chance to learn how to read and
+how to work.
+
+The carpenter was set to get ready more tiny houses for the next summer's
+campaign, the tents were folded away, the spring wheat was all in; the fall
+plowing and fertilizing completed and whatever else ought to be done to
+a farm for its winter sleep; half a dozen cows were introduced into the
+settlement and a roomy chicken house and run prepared. Sam set about
+studying incubators, and teaching his helpers. Then when the cranberries
+were picked the colony settled down to its study.
+
+The Princeton student and the agricultural student grew deeply interested
+in their motley school, and finally produced a young woman who came down
+every afternoon for a consideration, and taught a kindergarten, to which
+many of the prematurely grown-up mothers came also with great delight and
+profit, and incidentally learned how to be better, cleaner, wiser mothers.
+The young woman of her own accord added a cooking school for the women and
+girls.
+
+Once a week Michael brought down some one from New York to amuse these poor
+childish people. And so the winter passed.
+
+Once a wealthy friend of Mr. Holt asked to be taken down to see the place,
+and after going the rounds of the farm and making himself quite friendly
+roasting chestnuts around the great open fire in the "big house," as the
+original cottage was called, returned to New York with many congratulations
+for Michael. A few days afterward he mailed to Michael the deed of the
+adjoining farm of one hundred acres, and Michael, radiant, wondering, began
+to know that his dreams for his poor downtrodden people were coming true.
+There would be room enough now for many a year to come for the people he
+needed to bring down.
+
+Of course this had not all been done without discouragements. Some of the
+most hopeful of the colonists had proved unmanageable, or unwilling to
+work; some had run away, or smuggled in some whiskey. There had been two
+or three incipient rows, and more than double that number of disappointing
+enterprises, but yet, the work was going on.
+
+And still, there came no word from Mr. Endicott.
+
+Michael was holding well with his employers, and they were beginning to
+talk to him of a partnership with them when he was done, for he had far
+outstripped French in his studies, and seemed to master everything he
+touched with an eagerness that showed great intellectual appetite.
+
+He still kept up his work in the little white room in the alley, evenings,
+though he divided his labors somewhat with Will French, Miss Semple and
+others who had heard of the work and had gradually offered their services.
+It had almost become a little settlement or mission in itself. The one
+room had become two and a bath; then the whole first floor with a small
+gymnasium. French was the enthusiastic leader in this, and Hester Semple
+had done many things for the little children and women. The next set of
+colonists for Michael's farm were always being got ready and were spoken of
+as "eligibles" by the workers.
+
+Hester Semple had proved to be a most valuable assistant, ever ready with
+suggestions, tireless and as enthusiastic as Michael himself. Night after
+night the three toiled, and came home happily together. The association
+with the two was very sweet to Michael, whose heart was famished for
+friends and relations who "belonged," But it never occurred to Michael to
+look on Miss Semple in any other light than friend and fellow worker.
+
+Will French and Michael were coming home from the office one afternoon
+together, and talking eagerly of the progress at the farm.
+
+"When you get married, Endicott," said Will, "you must build a handsome
+bungalow or something for your summer home, down there on that knoll just
+overlooking the river where you can see the sea in the distance."
+
+Michael grew sober at once.
+
+"I don't expect ever to be married, Will," he said after a pause, with one
+of his far-away looks, and his chin up, showing that what he had said was
+an indisputable fact.
+
+"The Dickens!" said Will stopping in his walk and holding up Michael. "She
+hasn't refused you, has she?"
+
+"Refused me? Who? What do you mean?" asked Michael looking puzzled.
+
+"Why, Hester--Miss Semple. She hasn't turned you down, old chap?"
+
+"Miss Semple! Why, Will, you never thought--you don't think she ever
+thought--?"
+
+"Well, I didn't know," said Will embarrassedly, "it looked pretty much like
+it sometimes. There didn't seem much show for me. I've thought lately you
+had it all settled and were engaged sure."
+
+"Oh, Will," said Michael in that tone that showed his soul was moved to its
+depth.
+
+"I say, old chap!" said Will, "I'm fiercely sorry I've butted in to your
+affairs. I never dreamed you'd feel like this. But seeing I have, would
+you mind telling me if you'll give me a good send off with Hester? Sort of
+'bless-you-my-son,' you know; and tell me you don't mind if I go ahead and
+try my luck."
+
+"With all my heart, Will. I never thought of it, but I believe it would be
+great for you both. You seem sort of made for each other."
+
+"It's awfully good of you to say so," said Will, "but I'm afraid Hester
+doesn't think so. She's all taken up with you."
+
+"Not at all!" said Michael eagerly. "Not in the least. I've never noticed
+it. I'm sure she likes you best."
+
+And it was so from that night that Michael almost always had some excuse
+for staying later at the room, or for going somewhere else for a little
+while so that he would have to leave them half way home; and Hester and
+Will from that time forth walked together more and more. Thus Michael took
+his lonely way, cut off from even this friendly group.
+
+And the summer and the winter made the second year of the colony at Old
+Orchard.
+
+Then, the following spring Starr Endicott and her mother came home and
+things began to happen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Starr was eighteen when she returned, and very beautiful. Society was made
+at once aware of her presence.
+
+Michael, whose heart was ever on the alert to know of her, and to find out
+where Mr. Endicott was, saw the first notice in the paper.
+
+Three times had Endicott crossed the water to visit his wife and daughter
+during their stay abroad, and every time Michael had known and anxiously
+awaited some sign of his return. He had read the society columns now for
+two years solely for the purpose of seeing whether anything would be said
+about the Endicott family, and he was growing wondrously wise in the ways
+of the society world.
+
+Also, he had come to know society a little in another way.
+
+Shortly after his last interview with Endicott Miss Emily Holt, daughter of
+the senior member of the firm of Holt and Holt, had invited Michael to dine
+with her father and herself; and following this had come an invitation to a
+house party at the Holts' country seat. This came in the busy season of the
+farm work; but Michael, anxious to please his employers, took a couple of
+days off and went. And he certainly enjoyed the good times to the full. He
+had opportunity to renew his tennis in which he had been a master hand, and
+to row and ride, in both of which he excelled. Also, he met a number of
+pleasant people who accepted him for the splendid fellow he looked to be
+and asked not who he was. Men of his looks and bearing came not in their
+way every day and Michael was good company wherever he went.
+
+However, when it came to the evenings, Michael was at a loss. He could not
+dance nor talk small talk. He was too intensely in earnest for society's
+ways, and they did not understand. He could talk about the books he had
+read, and the things he had thought, but they were great thoughts and not
+at all good form for a frivolous company to dwell upon. One did not want a
+problem in economics or a deep philosophical question thrust upon one at a
+dance. Michael became a delightful but difficult proposition for the girls
+present, each one undertaking to teach him how to talk in society, but each
+in turn making a miserable failure. At last Emily Holt herself set out to
+give him gentle hints on light conversation and found herself deep in a
+discussion of Wordsworth's poems about which she knew absolutely nothing,
+and in which Michael's weary soul had been steeping itself lately.
+
+Miss Holt retired in laughing defeat, at last, and advised her protégé to
+take a course of modern novels. Michael, always serious, took her at her
+word, and with grave earnestness proceeded to do so; but his course ended
+after two or three weeks. He found them far from his taste, the most of
+them too vividly portraying the sins of his alley in a setting of high
+life. Michael had enough of that sort of thing in real life, and felt
+he could not stand the strain of modern fiction, so turned back to his
+Wordsworth again and found soothing and mental stimulus.
+
+But there followed other invitations, some of which he accepted and some
+of which he declined. Still, the handsome, independent young Adonis was
+in great demand in spite of his peculiar habit of always being in earnest
+about everything. Perhaps they liked him and ran after him but the more
+because of his inaccessibility, and the fact that he was really doing
+something in the world. For it began to be whispered about among those who
+knew--and perhaps Emily Holt was the originator--that Michael was going
+to be something brilliant in the world of worth-while-things one of these
+days.
+
+The tickets that Endicott promised him had arrived in due time, and anxious
+to please his benefactor, even in his alienation, Michael faithfully
+attended concerts and lectures, and enjoyed them to the full, borrowing
+from his hours of sleep to make up what he had thus spent, rather than from
+his work or his study. And thus he grew in knowledge of the arts, and in
+love of all things great, whether music, or pictures, or great minds.
+
+Matters stood thus when Starr appeared on the scene.
+
+The young girl made her début that winter, and the papers were full of
+her pictures and the entertainments given in her honor. She was dined and
+danced and recepted day after day and night after night, and no débutante
+had ever received higher praise of the critics for beauty, grace, and charm
+of manner.
+
+Michael read them all, carefully cut out and preserved a few pleasant
+things that were written about her, looked at the pictures, and turned from
+the pomp and pride of her triumph to the little snapshot of herself on
+horseback in the Park with her groom, which she had sent to him when she
+was a little girl. That was his, and his alone, but these others belonged
+to the world, the world in which he had no part.
+
+For from all this gaiety of society Michael now held aloof. Invitations
+he received, not a few, for he was growing more popular every day, but he
+declined them all. A fine sense of honor kept him from going anywhere that
+Starr was sure to be. He had a right, of course, and it would have been
+pleasant in a way to have her see that he was welcome in her world; but
+always there was before his mental vision the memory of her mother's biting
+words as she put him down from the glorified presence of her world, into an
+existence of shame and sin and sorrow. He felt that Starr was so far above
+him that he must not hurt her by coming too near. And so, in deference to
+the vow that he had taken when the knowledge of his unworthiness had first
+been presented to him, he stayed away.
+
+Starr, as she heard more and more of his conquests in her world, wondered
+and was piqued that he came not near her. And one day meeting him by chance
+on Fifth Avenue, she greeted him graciously and invited him to call.
+
+Michael thanked her with his quiet manner, while his heart was in a tumult
+over her beauty, and her dimpled smiles that blossomed out in the old
+childish ways, only still more beautifully, it seemed to him. He went in
+the strength of that smile many days: but he did not go to call upon her.
+
+The days passed into weeks and months, and still he did not appear, and
+Starr, hearing more of his growing inaccessibility, determined to show the
+others that she could draw him out of his shell. She humbled her Endicott
+pride and wrote him a charming little note asking him to call on one of the
+"afternoons" when she and her mother held court. But Michael, though he
+treasured the note, wrote a graceful, but decided refusal.
+
+This angered the young woman, exceedingly, and she decided to cut him out
+of her good graces entirely. And indeed the whirl of gaiety in which
+she was involved scarcely gave her time for remembering old friends. In
+occasional odd moments when she thought of him at all, it was with a vague
+kind of disappointment, that he too, with all the other things of her
+childhood, had turned out to be not what she had thought.
+
+But she met him face to face one bright Sunday afternoon as she walked on
+the avenue with one of the many courtiers who eagerly attended her every
+step. He was a slender, handsome young fellow, with dark eyes and hair and
+reckless mouth. There were jaded lines already around his youthful eyes and
+lips. His name was Stuyvesant Carter. Michael recognized him at once. His
+picture had been in the papers but the week before as leader with Starr of
+the cotillion. His presence with her in the bright sunny afternoon was to
+Michael like a great cloud of trouble looming out of a perfect day. He
+looked and looked again, his expressive eyes searching the man before him
+to the depths, and then going to the other face, beautiful, innocent,
+happy.
+
+Michael was walking with Hester Semple.
+
+Now Hester, in her broadcloth tailored suit, and big black hat with plumes,
+was a pretty sight, and she looked quite distinguished walking beside
+Michael, whose garments seemed somehow always to set him off as if they had
+been especially designed for him; and after whom many eyes were turned as
+he passed by.
+
+Had it been but the moment later, or even three minutes before, Will French
+would have been with them and Michael would have been obviously a third
+member of the party, for he was most careful in these days to let them both
+know that he considered they belonged together. But Will had stopped a
+moment to speak to a business acquaintance, and Hester and Michael were
+walking slowly ahead until he should rejoin them.
+
+"Look!" said Hester excitedly. "Isn't that the pretty Miss Endicott whose
+picture is in the papers so much? I'm sure it must be, though she's ten
+times prettier than any of her pictures."
+
+But Michael needed not his attention called. He was already looking with
+all his soul in his eyes.
+
+As they came opposite he lifted his hat with, such marked, deference to
+Starr that young Stuyvesant Carter turned and looked at him insolently,
+with a careless motion of his own hand toward his hat. But Starr, with
+brilliant cheeks, and eyes that looked straight at Michael, continued her
+conversation with her companion and never so much as by the flicker of an
+eyelash recognized her former friend.
+
+It was but an instant in the passing, and Hester was so taken up with
+looking at the beauty of the idol of society that she never noticed
+Michael's lifted hat until they were passed. Then Will French joined them
+breezily.
+
+"Gee whiz, but she's a peach, isn't she?" he breathed as he took his place
+beside Hester, and Michael dropped behind, "but I suppose it'll all rub
+off. They say most of those swells aren't real."
+
+"I think she's real!" declared Hester. "Her eyes are sweet and her smile
+is charming. The color on her cheeks wasn't put on like paint. I just love
+her. I believe I'd like to know her. She certainly is beautiful, and she
+doesn't look a bit spoiled. Did you ever see such eyes?"
+
+"They aren't half as nice as a pair of gray ones I know," said Will looking
+meaningfully at them as they were lifted smiling to his.
+
+"Will, you mustn't say such things--on the street--anyway--and Michael
+just behind--Why, where is Michael? See! He has dropped away behind and
+is walking slowly. Will, does Michael know Miss Endicott? I never thought
+before about their names being the same. But he lifted his hat to her--and
+she simply stared blankly at him as if she had never seen him before."
+
+"The little snob!" said Will indignantly. "I told you they were all
+artificial. I believe they are some kind of relation or other. Come to
+think of it I believe old Endicott introduced Michael into our office.
+Maybe she hasn't seen him in a long time and has forgotten him."
+
+"No one who had once known Michael could ever forget him," said Hester with
+conviction.
+
+"No, I suppose that's so," sighed Will, looking at her a trifle wistfully.
+
+After the incident of this meeting Michael kept more and more aloof from
+even small entrances into society; and more and more he gave his time to
+study and to work among the poor.
+
+So the winter passed in a round of gaieties, transplanted for a few weeks
+to Palm Beach, then back again to New York, then to Tuxedo for the summer,
+and Michael knew of it all, yet had no part any more in it, for now she had
+cut him out of her life herself, and he might not even cherish her bright
+smiles and words of the past. She did not wish to know him. It was right,
+it was just; it was best; but it was agony!
+
+Michael's fresh color grew white that year, and he looked more like the
+man-angel than ever as he came and went in the alley; old Sally from her
+doorstep, drawing nearer and nearer to her own end, saw it first, and
+called daily attention to the spirit-look of Michael as he passed.
+
+One evening early in spring, Michael was starting home weary and unusually
+discouraged. Sam had gone down to the farm with Jim to get ready for the
+spring work, and find out just how things were going and what was needed
+from the city. Jim was developing into a tolerably dependable fellow save
+for his hot temper, and Michael missed them from, the alley work, for the
+rooms were crowded now every night. True Hester and Will were faithful, but
+they were so much taken up with one another in these days that he did not
+like to trouble them with unusual cases, and he had no one with whom to
+counsel. Several things had been going awry and he was sad.
+
+Hester and Will were ahead walking slowly as usual. Michael locked the door
+with a sigh and turned to follow them, when he saw in the heavy shadows
+on the other side of the court two figures steal from one of the openings
+between the houses and move along toward the end of the alley. Something in
+their demeanor made Michael watch them instinctively. As they neared the
+end of the alley toward the street they paused a moment and one of the
+figures stole back lingeringly. He thought he recognized her as a girl
+cursed with more than the usual amount of beauty. She disappeared into the
+darkness of the tenement, but the other after looking back a moment kept on
+toward the street. Michael quickened his steps and came to the corner at
+about the same time, crossing over as the other man passed the light and
+looking full in his face.
+
+To his surprise he saw that the man was Stuyvesant Carter!
+
+With an exclamation of disgust and horror Michael stepped full in the
+pathway of the man and blocked, his further passage.
+
+"What are you doing here?" He asked in tones that would have made a brave
+man tremble.
+
+Stuyvesant Carter glared at the vision that had suddenly stopped his way,
+drew his hat down over his evil eyes and snarled: "Get out of my way or
+you'll be sorry! I'm probably doing the same thing that you're doing here!"
+
+"Probably not!" said Michael with meaning tone. "You know you can mean no
+good to a girl like that one you were just with. Come down here again at
+your peril! And if I hear of you're having anything to do with that girl
+I'll take means to have the whole thing made public."
+
+"Indeed!" said young Carter insolently. "Is she your girl? I think not! And
+who are you anyway?"
+
+"You'll find out if you come down here again!" said Michael his fingers
+fairly aching to grip the gentlemanly villain before him. "Now get out of
+here at once or you may not be able to walk out."
+
+"I'll get out when I like!" sneered the other, nevertheless backing rapidly
+away through the opening given him. When he had reached a safe distance, he
+added, tantalizingly: "And I'll come back when I like, too."
+
+"Very well, I shall be ready for you, Mr. Carter!"
+
+Michael's tones were clear and distinct and could be heard two blocks away
+in the comparative stillness of the city night. At sound of his real name
+spoken fearlessly in such environment, the leader of society slid away into
+the night as if he had suddenly been erased from the perspective; nor did
+sound of footsteps linger from his going.
+
+"Who was dat guy?"
+
+It was a small voice that spoke at Michael's elbow. Hester and Will were
+far down the street in the other direction and had forgotten Michael.
+
+Michael turned and saw one of his smallest "kids" crouching in the shadow
+beside him.
+
+"Why, Tony, are you here yet? You ought to have been asleep long ago."
+
+"Was dat de ike wot comes to see Lizzie?"
+
+"See here, Tony, what do you know about this?"
+
+Whereupon Tony proceeded, to unfold a tale that made Michael's heart sick.
+"Lizzie, she's got swell sence she went away to work to a res'trant at de
+sheeshole. She ain't leavin' her ma hev her wages, an' she wears fierce
+does, like de swells!" finished Tony solemnly as if these things were the
+worst of all that he had told.
+
+So Michael sent Tony to his rest and went home with a heavy heart, to wake
+and think through the night long what he should do to save Starr, his
+bright beautiful Starr, from the clutches of this human vampire.
+
+When morning dawned Michael knew what he was going to do. He had decided to
+go to Mr. Endicott and tell him the whole story. Starr's father could and
+would protect her better than he could.
+
+As early as he could get away from the office he hurried to carry out his
+purpose, but on arriving at Mr. Endicott's office he was told that the
+gentleman had sailed for Austria and would be absent some weeks, even
+months, perhaps, if his business did not mature as rapidly as he hoped.
+Michael asked for the address, but when he reached his desk again and tried
+to frame a letter that would convey the truth convincingly to the absent
+father, who could not read it for more than a week at least, and would
+then be thousands of miles away from the scene of action, he gave it up as
+useless. Something more effectual must be done and done quickly.
+
+In the first place he must have facts. He could not do anything until he
+knew beyond a shadow of doubt that what he feared was true absolutely. If
+he could have told Mr. Endicott all would have been different; he was a man
+and could do his own investigating if he saw fit. Michael might have left
+the matter in his hands. But he could not tell him.
+
+If there was some other male member of the family to whom he could go with
+the warning, he must be very sure of his ground before he spoke. If there
+were no such man friend or relative of the family he must do something
+else--what? He shrank from thinking.
+
+And so with the sources open to a keen lawyer, he went to work to ferret
+out the life and doings of Stuyvesant Carter; and it is needless to say
+that he unearthed a lot of information that was so sickening in its nature
+that he felt almost helpless before it. It was appalling--and the more so
+because of the rank and station of the man. If he had been brought up in
+the slums one might have expected--but this!
+
+The second day, Michael, haggard and worn with the responsibility, started
+out to find that useful male relative of the Endicott family. There seemed
+to be no such person. The third morning he came to the office determined
+to tell the whole story to Mr. Holt, senior, and ask his advice and aid in
+protecting Starr; but to his dismay he found that Mr. Holt, senior, had
+been taken seriously ill with heart trouble, and it might be weeks before
+he was able to return to the office.
+
+Deeply grieved and utterly baffled, the young man tried to think what to do
+next. The junior Mr. Holt had never encouraged confidences, and would not
+be likely to help in this matter. He must do something himself.
+
+And now Michael faced two alternatives.
+
+There were only two people to whom the story could be told, and they were
+Starr herself, and her mother!
+
+Tell Starr all he knew he could not. To tell her anything of this story
+would be gall and wormwood! To have to drop a hint that would blacken
+another man's character would place him in a most awkward position. To
+think of doing it was like tearing out his heart for her to trample upon.
+
+Yet on the other hand Michael would far rather go into battle and face a
+thousand bristling cannon mouths than meet the mother on her own ground and
+tell her what he had to tell, while her steel-cold eyes looked him through
+and through or burned him with scorn and unbelief. He had an instinctive
+feeling that he should fail if he went to her.
+
+At last he wrote a note to Starr:
+
+
+"Dear Miss Endicott:
+
+"Can you let me have a brief interview at your convenience and just as soon
+as possible? I have a favor to ask of you which I most earnestly hope you
+will be willing to grant.
+
+"Sincerely yours,
+
+"Michael."
+
+
+He sent the note off with fear and trembling. Every word had been carefully
+considered and yet it haunted him continually that he might have written
+differently. Would she grant the interview? If she did not what then should
+he do?
+
+The next day he received a ceremonious little note on creamy paper crested
+with a silver star monogramed in blue:
+
+
+"Miss Endicott will receive Mr. Endicott to-morrow morning at eleven."
+
+
+A shiver ran through him as he read, and consigned the elegant
+communication to his waste-basket. It was not from his Starr. It was from
+a stranger. And yet, the subtle perfume that stole forth from the envelope
+reminded him of her. On second thought he drew it forth again and put it in
+his pocket. After all she had granted the interview, and this bit of paper
+was a part of her daily life; it had come from her, she had written it, and
+sent it to him. It was therefore precious.
+
+Starr had been more than usually thoughtful when she read Michael's note.
+It pleased her that at last she had brought him to her feet, though not for
+the world would she let him know it. Doubtless he wished her influence for
+some position or other that he would have asked her father instead if he
+had been at home. Starr knew nothing of the alienation between her father
+and Michael. But Michael should pay for his request, in humility at least.
+Therefore she sent her cool little stab of ceremony to call him to her.
+
+But Michael did not look in the least humiliated as he entered the
+luxurious library where Starr had chosen to receive him. His manner was
+grave and assured, and he made no sign of the tumult it gave him to see her
+thus in her own home once more where all her womanliness and charm were but
+enhanced by the luxury about her.
+
+He came forward to greet her just as if she had not cut him dead the very
+last time they met; and Starr as she regarded him was struck with wonder
+over the exalted beauty of manhood that was his unique dower.
+
+"Thank you for letting me come," he said simply. "I will not intrude long
+upon your time--"
+
+Starr had a strange sensation of fear lest he was going to slip away from
+her again before she was willing.
+
+"Oh, that is all right," she said graciously; "won't you sit down. I am
+always glad to do a favor for a friend of my childhood."
+
+It was a sentence she had rehearsed many times in her mind, and it was
+meant to convey reproach and indifference in the extreme, but somehow
+as she fluttered into a great leather chair she felt that her voice was
+trembling and she had miserably failed in what she had meant to do. She
+felt strangely ashamed of her attitude, with those two dear soulful eyes
+looking straight at her. It reminded her of the way he had looked when he
+told her in the Florida chapel long ago that nobody but herself had ever
+kissed him--and she had kissed him then. Suppose he should be going to ask
+her to do it again! The thought made her cheeks rosy, and her society air
+deserted her entirely. But of course he would not do that. It was a crazy
+thought. What was the matter with her anyway, and why did she feel so
+unnerved? Then Michael spoke.
+
+"May I ask if you know a man by the name of Stuyvesant Carter?"
+
+Starr looked startled, and then stiffened slightly.
+
+"I do!" she answered graciously. "He is one of my intimate friends. Is
+there anything he can do for you that you would like my intercession?"
+
+Starr smiled graciously. She thought she understood the reason for
+Michael's call now, and she was pleased to think how easily she could grant
+his request. The idea of introducing the two was stimulating. She was
+pondering what a handsome pair of men they were, and so different from each
+other.
+
+But Michael's clear voice startled her again out of her complacence.
+
+"Thank God there is not!" he said, and his tone had that in it that made
+Starr sit up and put on all her dignity.
+
+"Indeed!" she said with asperity, her eyes flashing.
+
+"Pardon me, Miss Endicott," Michael said sadly. "You do not understand my
+feeling, of course!"
+
+"I certainly do not." All Starr's icicle sentences were inherited from her
+mother.
+
+"And I cannot well explain," he went on sadly. "I must ask you to take it
+on trust. The favor I have come to ask is this, that you will not have
+anything further to do with that young man until your father's return. I
+know this may seem very strange to you, but believe me if you understood
+you would not hesitate to do what I have asked."
+
+Michael held her with his look and with his earnest tones. For a moment she
+could not speak from sheer astonishment at his audacity. Then she froze him
+with a look copied from her mother's haughty manner.
+
+"And what reason can you possibly give for such an extraordinary request?"
+she asked at last, when his look compelled an answer.
+
+"I cannot give you a reason," he said gravely. "You must trust me that this
+is best. Your father will explain to you when he comes."
+
+Another pause and then Starr haughtily asked:
+
+"And you really think that I would grant such a ridiculous request which
+in itself implies a lack of trust in the character of one of my warmest
+friends?"
+
+"I most earnestly hope that you will," answered Michael.
+
+In spite of her hauteur she could not but be impressed by Michael's manner.
+His grave tones and serious eyes told hear heart that here was something
+out of the ordinary, at least she gave Michael credit for thinking there
+was.
+
+"I certainly shall not do anything of the kind without a good reason for
+it." Starr's tone was determined and cold.
+
+"And I can give you no reason beyond telling you that he is not such a man
+as a friend of yours should be."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Please do not ask me. Please trust me and give me your promise. At least
+wait until I can write to your father."
+
+Starr rose with a look of her father's stubbornness now in her pretty face.
+
+"I wish to be told," she demanded angrily.
+
+"You would not wish to be told if you knew," he answered.
+
+She stood looking at him steadily for a full moment, then with a graceful
+toss of her lovely head, she said haughtily:
+
+"I must decline to accede to your request, Mr. Endicott. You will excuse
+me, I have a luncheon engagement now."
+
+She stood aside for him to go out the door, but as he rose with pleading
+still in his eyes, he said:
+
+"You will write to your father and tell him what I have said? You will wait
+until you hear from him?"
+
+"It is impossible, Mr. Endicott." Starr's tone was freezing now, and he
+could see that she was very angry. "Mr. Carter is my friend!" she flung at
+him as he passed her and went out into the hall.
+
+Another night of anguish brought Michael face to face with the necessity
+for an interview with Starr's mother.
+
+Taking his cue from the hour Starr had set for his call, he went a little
+before eleven o'clock and sent up the card of the firm with his own name
+written below; for he had very serious doubts of obtaining an interview at
+all if the lady thought he might be there on his own business.
+
+It is doubtful whether Mrs. Endicott recognized the former "Mikky"
+under the title written below his most respectable law firm's name. Any
+representative of Holt and Holt was to be recognized of course. She came
+down within a half hour, quite graciously with lorgnette in her hand, until
+she had reached the centre of the reception room where he had been put
+to await her. Then Michael arose, almost from the same spot where she had
+addressed him nearly four years before, the halo of the morning shining
+through the high window on his hair, and with a start and stiffening of her
+whole form she recognized him.
+
+"Oh, it is _you_!" There was that in her tone that argued ill for Michael's
+mission, but with grave and gentle bearing he began:
+
+"Madam, I beg your pardon for the intrusion. I would not have come if there
+had been any other way. I tried to find Mr. Endicott but was told he had
+sailed--"
+
+"You needn't waste your time, and mine. I shall do nothing for you. As I
+told you before, if I remember, I think far too much already has been done
+for you and I never felt that you had the slightest claim upon our bounty.
+I must refuse to hear any hard luck stories."
+
+Michael's face was a study. Indignation, shame and pity struggled with a
+sudden sense of the ridiculousness of the situation.
+
+What he did was to laugh, a rich, clear, musical laugh that stopped the
+lady's tirade better than he could have done it in any other way.
+
+"Well! Really! Have you come to insult me?" she said angrily. "I will call
+a servant," and she stepped curtly toward the bell.
+
+"Madam, I beg your pardon," said Michael quickly, grave at once. "I
+intended no insult and I have come to ask no favor of you. I came because
+of a serious matter, perhaps a grave danger to your home, which I thought
+you should be made acquainted with."
+
+"Indeed! Well, make haste," said Mrs. Endicott, half mollified. "My time is
+valuable. Has some one been planning to rob the house?"
+
+Michael looked straight in her face and told her briefly a few facts,
+delicately worded, forcefully put, which would have convinced the heart of
+any true mother that the man before her had none but pure motives.
+
+Not so this mother. The more Michael talked the stiffer, haughtier, more
+hateful, grew her stare; and when he paused, thinking not to utterly
+overwhelm her with his facts, she remarked, superciliously:
+
+"How could you possibly know all these things, unless you had been in the
+same places where you claim Mr. Carter has been? But, oh, of course I
+forgot! Your former home was there, and so of course you must have many
+friends among--ah--_those people_!" She drew her mental skirts away from
+contaminating contact as she spoke the last two words, and punctuated them
+with a contemptuous look through the lorgnette.
+
+"But, my dear fellow," she went on adopting the most outrageously
+patronizing manner, "you should never trust those people. Of course you
+don't understand that, having been away from them so many years among
+respectable folks, but they really do not know what the truth is. I doubt
+very much whether there is a grain of foundation for all that you have been
+telling me."
+
+"Madam, I have taken pains to look into the matter and I know that
+every word which I have been telling you is true. Two of the meet noted
+detectives of the city have been making an investigation. I would not have
+ventured to come if I had not had indisputable facts to give you."
+
+Mrs. Endicott arose still holding the lorgnette to her eyes, though she
+showed that the interview was drawing to a close:
+
+"Then young man," she said, "it will be necessary for me to tell you that
+the things you have been saying are not considered proper to speak of
+before ladies in respectable society. I remember of course your low origin
+and lack of breeding and forgive what otherwise I should consider an
+insult. Furthermore, let me tell you, that it is not considered honorable
+to investigate a gentleman's private life too closely. All young men sow
+their wild oats of course, and are probably none the worse for it. In fact,
+if a man has not seen life he really is not worth much. It is his own
+affair, and no business of yours. I must ask you to refrain from saying
+anything of this matter to anyone. Understand? Not a word of it! My husband
+would be deeply outraged to know that a young friend of his daughter's, a
+man of refinement and position, had been the object of scandal by one who
+should honor anyone whom he honors. I really cannot spare any more time
+this morning."
+
+"But madam! You certainly do not mean that you will not investigate this
+matter for yourself? You would not let your daughter accept such a man as
+her friend--?"
+
+The lorgnette came into play again but its stare was quite ineffectual
+upon Michael's white earnest face. His deep eyes lit with horror at this
+monstrous woman who seemed devoid of mother-love.
+
+"The time has come for you to stop. It is none of your business what I
+mean. You have done what you thought was your duty by telling me, now put
+the matter entirely out of your mind. Desist at once!"
+
+With a final stare she swept out of the room and up the broad staircase and
+Michael, watching her until she was out of sight, went out of the house
+with bowed head and burdened heart. Went out to write a letter to Starr's
+father, a letter which would certainly have performed its mission as his
+other efforts had failed; but which because of a sudden and unexpected
+change of address just missed him at every stopping place, as it travelled
+its silent unfruitful way about the world after him, never getting anywhere
+until too late.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Starr was very angry with Michael when he left her. There was perhaps more
+hurt pride and pique in her anger than she would have cared to own. He had
+failed to succumb to her charms, he had not seemed to notice her as other
+men did; he had even lost the look of admiration he used to wear when they
+were boy and girl. He had refused utterly to tell her what she had a great
+curiosity to know.
+
+She had been sure, was sure yet, that if Michael would tell her what he
+had against Stuyvesant Carter she could explain it satisfactorily. Her
+flattered little head was almost turned at this time with the adoration she
+had received. She thought she knew almost everything that Stuyvesant Carter
+had ever done. He was a fluent talker and had spent many hours detailing
+to her incidents and anecdotes of his eventful career. He had raced a good
+deal and still had several expensive racing cars. There wasn't anything
+very dreadful about that except, of course, it was dangerous. He used to
+gamble a great deal but he had promised her he would never do it any more
+because she thought it unrefined. Of course it wasn't as though he hadn't
+plenty of money; and her mother had told her that all young men did those
+things. No, not her father of course, for he had been unusual, but times
+were different nowadays. Young men were expected to be a little wild. It
+was the influence of college life and a progressive age she supposed. It
+didn't do any harm. They always settled down and made good husbands after
+they were married. Michael of course did not understand these things. He
+had spent a great many years in Florida with a dear old professor and a lot
+of good little boys. Michael was unacquainted with the ways of the world.
+
+Thus she reasoned, yet nevertheless Michael's warning troubled her and
+finally she decided to go to the best source of information and ask the
+young man himself.
+
+Accordingly three days after Michael's visit when he dropped in to ask if
+she would go to the opera that evening with him instead of something else
+they had planned to do together, she laughingly questioned him.
+
+"What in the world can you ever have done, Mr. Carter, that should make you
+unfit company for me?"
+
+She asked the question lightly yet her eyes watched his face most closely
+as she waited for the answer.
+
+The blood rolled in dark waves over his handsome face and his brows grew
+dark with anger which half hid the start of almost fear with which he
+regarded her.
+
+"What do you mean, Starr?" He looked at her keenly and could not tell if
+she were in earnest or not.
+
+"Just that," she mocked half gravely. "Tell me what you have been doing
+that should make you unfit company for me? Some one has been trying to
+make me promise to have nothing to do with you, and I want to know what it
+means."
+
+"Who has been doing that?" There were dangerous lights in the dark eyes,
+lights that showed the brutality of the coward and the evildoer.
+
+"Oh, a man!" said Starr provokingly; "but if you look like that I shan't
+tell you anything more about it, I don't like you now. You look as if you
+could eat me. You make me think there must be something in it all."
+
+Quick to take the warning the young man brought his face under control and
+broke into a hoarse artificial laugh. A sudden vision of understanding had
+come to him and a fear was in his heart. There was nothing like being bold
+and taking the bull by the horns.
+
+"I'll wager I can explain the riddle for you," he said airily. "I lost my
+way the other evening coming home late. You see there had been some mistake
+and my car didn't come to the club for me. I started on foot, leaving word
+for it to overtake me--" He lied as he went along. He had had a short
+lifetime of practice and did it quite naturally and easily, "and I was
+thinking about you and how soon I dared ask you a certain question, when
+all at once I noticed that things seemed sort of unfamiliar. I turned to
+go back but couldn't for the life of me tell which way I had turned at the
+last corner--you see what a dangerous influence you have over me--and
+I wandered on and on, getting deeper and deeper into things. It wasn't
+exactly a savory neighborhood and I wanted to get out as soon as possible
+for I suspected that it wasn't even very safe down there alone at that hour
+of the night. I was hesitating under a street light close to a dark alley,
+trying to decide which would be the quickest way out, and meditating what I
+should do to find a policeman, when suddenly there loomed up beside me in
+the dark out of the depths of the alley a great tall brute of a fellow with
+the strangest looking yellow hair and a body that looked as if he could
+play football with the universe if he liked, and charged me with having
+come down there to visit his girl.
+
+"Well, of course the situation wasn't very pleasant. I tried to explain
+that I was lost; that I had never been down in that quarter of the city
+before and didn't even know his girl. But he would listen to nothing. He
+began to threaten me. Then I took out my card and handed it to him, most
+unwisely of course, but then I am wholly unused to such situations, and I
+explained to him just who I was and that of course I wouldn't want to come
+to see _his_ girl, even if I would be so mean, and all that. But do you
+believe me, that fellow wouldn't take a word of it. He threw the card on
+the sidewalk, ground his heel into it, and used all sorts of evil language
+that I can't repeat, and finally after I thought he was going to put me in
+the ditch and pummel me he let me go, shouting after me that if I ever came
+near his girl again he would publish it in the newspapers. Then of course
+I understood what a foolish thing I had done in giving him my card. But it
+was too late. I told him as politely as I knew how that if he would show me
+the way to get home I would never trouble him again, and he finally let me
+go."
+
+Starr's eyes were all this time quizzically searching his face. "Was the
+man intoxicated?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, I presume so, more or less. They all are down there, though he was not
+of the slums himself I should say. He was rather well dressed, and probably
+angry that I had discovered him in such haunts."
+
+"When did this happen?"
+
+"About a week ago."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me about it before?"
+
+"Oh I didn't want to distress you, and besides, I've had my mind too full
+of other things. Starr, darling, you must have seen all these weeks how
+much I love you, and how I have only been waiting the proper opportunity to
+ask you to be my wife--"
+
+Starr was in a measure prepared for this proposal. Her mother had
+instructed her that the alliance was one wholly within the pale of wisdom;
+and her own fancy was quite taken up with this handsome new admirer who
+flattered her hourly and showered attentions upon her until she felt quite
+content with herself the world and him. There was a spice of daring about
+Starr that liked what she thought was the wildness and gaiety of young
+Carter, and she had quite made up her mind to accept him.
+
+One week later the society papers announced the engagement, and the
+world of gaiety was all in a flutter, over the many functions that were
+immediately set agoing in their honor.
+
+Michael, at his desk in the busy office, read, and bowed his head in
+anguish. Starr, his bright beautiful Starr, to be sacrificed to a beast
+like that! Would that he might once more save her to life and happiness!
+
+For the next few days Michael went about in a state that almost bordered
+on the frantic. His white face looked drawn, and his great eyes burned in
+their clear setting like live coals. People turned to look after him on the
+street and exclaimed: "Why, look at that man!" and yet he seemed more like
+an avenging angel dropped down for some terrible errand than like a plain
+ordinary man.
+
+Mr. Holt noticed it and spoke to him about it.
+
+"You ought to drop work and take a good vacation, Endicott," he said
+kindly. "You're in bad shape. You'll break down and be ill. If I were in
+your place I'd cancel the rent of that office and not try to start out for
+yourself until fall. It'll pay you in the end. You're taking things too
+seriously."
+
+But Michael smiled and shook his head. He was to open his own office the
+following week. It was all ready, with its simple furnishings, in marked
+contrast to the rooms that would have been his if he had acceded to his
+benefactor's request. But Michael had lost interest in office and work
+alike, and the room seemed now to him only a refuge from the eyes of men
+where he might hide with his great sorrow and try to study out some way to
+save Starr. Surely, surely, her father would do something when he received
+his letter! It was long past, time for an answer to have come. But then
+there was the hope that he was already doing something, though he was
+unwilling to afford Michael the satisfaction of knowing it.
+
+He gave much thought to a possible cablegram, that he might send, that
+would tell the story to the father while telling nothing to the world, but
+abandoned the idea again and again.
+
+Sam came up from the farm and saw Michael's face and was worried.
+
+"Say, pard, wot yer bin doin' t'yersef? Better come down t' th' farm an'
+git a bit o' fresh air."
+
+The only two people who did not notice the change in Michael's appearance
+were Hester and Will. They were too much engrossed in each other by this
+time to notice even Michael.
+
+They had fallen into the habit of leaving the rooms in the alley earlier
+than Michael and going home by themselves.
+
+They left him thus one night about three weeks after Starr's engagement had
+been announced. Michael stayed in the room for an hour after all the others
+had gone. He was expecting Sam to return. Sam had been up from the farm
+several times lately and this time without any apparent reason he had
+lingered in the city. He had not been to the room that night save for ten
+minutes early in the evening when he had mumbled something about a little
+business, and said he would be back before Michael left.
+
+Michael sat for a long time, his elbow on the table, his head in his hands,
+trying to think. A way had occurred to him which might or might not do
+something to prevent Starr from throwing away her happiness. The morning
+paper had hinted that plans for a speedy wedding were on foot. It was
+rumored that Miss Endicott was to be married as soon as her father reached
+home. Michael was desperate. He feared that now the father would arrive too
+late for him to get speech with him. He had begun to know that it was hard
+to convince people of the evil of those they had chosen as friends. It
+would take time.
+
+There was a way. He might have the whole story published in the papers. A
+public scandal would doubtless delay if not altogether put a stop to this
+alliance; but a public scandal that touched Mr. Carter would now also touch
+and bring into publicity the girl whose life was almost linked with his.
+Not until the very last resort would Michael bring about that publicity.
+That such a move on his part would beget him the eternal enmity of the
+entire Endicott family he did not doubt, but that factor figured not at all
+in Michael's calculations. He was not working for himself in this affair.
+Nothing that ever happened could make things right for him, he felt, and
+what was his life, or good name even, beside Starr's happiness?
+
+Wearily, at last, his problem unsolved, he got up and turned out the
+lights. As he was locking the door his attention was arrested by two
+figures standing between himself and the street light at the end of the
+alley. It was a man and a woman, and the woman seemed to be clinging to the
+man and pleading with him.
+
+Such sights were not uncommon in the alley; some poor woman often thus
+appealed to all that used to be good in the man she married, to make him
+stay away from the saloon, or to give her a little of his money to buy food
+for the children.
+
+More than once in such instances Michael had been able successfully to add
+his influence to the wife's and get the man to go quietly home.
+
+He put the key hastily in his pocket and hurried toward the two.
+
+"You shan't! You shan't! You shan't never go back to her!" he heard the
+woman cry fiercely. "You promised me--"
+
+"Shut up, will you? I don't care what I promised--" said the man in a
+guarded voice that Michael felt sure he had heard before.
+
+"I shan't shut up! I'll holler ef you go, so the police'll come. You've got
+a right to stay with me. You shan't do me no wrong ner you shan't go back
+to that stuck-up piece. You're mine, I say, and you promised--!"
+
+With a curse the man struck her a cruel blow across the mouth, and tried to
+tear her clinging hands away from his coat, but they only clung the more
+fiercely.
+
+Michael sprang to the woman's side like a panther.
+
+"Look out!" he said in clear tones. "You can't strike a woman!" His voice
+was low and calm, and sounded as it used to sound on the ball field when he
+was giving directions to his team at some crisis in the game.
+
+"Who says I can't?" snarled the man, and now Michael was sure he knew the
+voice. Then the wretch struck the woman between her eyes and she fell
+heavily to the ground.
+
+Like a flash Michael's great arm went out and felled the man, and in the
+same breath, from the shadows behind there sprang out the slender, wiry
+figure of Sam and flung itself upon the man on the ground who with angry
+imprecations was trying to struggle to his feet. His hand had gone to an
+inner pocket, as he fell and in a moment more there was a flash of light
+and Michael felt a bullet whiz by his ear. Nothing but the swerving of the
+straggling figures had saved it from going through his brain. It occurred
+to Michael in that instant that that was what had been intended. The
+conviction that the man had also recognized him gave strength to his arm
+as he wrenched the revolver from the hand of the would-be assassin. Nobody
+knew better than Michael how easy it would be to plead "self-defense" if
+the fellow got into any trouble. A man in young Carter's position with
+wealth and friends galore need not fear to wipe an unknown fellow out of
+existence; a fellow whose friends with few exceptions were toughs and jail
+birds and ex-criminals of all sorts.
+
+It was just as he gave Carter's wrist the twist that sent the revolver
+clattering to the ground beside the unconscious woman that Michael heard
+the hurried footsteps of the officer of the law accompanied by a curious
+motley crowd who had heard the pistol shot and come to see what new
+excitement life offered for their delectation. He suddenly realized how bad
+matters would look for Sam if he should be found in the embrace of one of
+Society's pets who would all too surely have a tale to tell that would
+clear himself regardless of others. Michael had no care for himself. The
+police all about that quarter knew him well, and were acquainted with his
+work. They looked upon him with almost more respect than they gave the
+priests and deaconesses who went about their errands of mercy; for
+Michael's spirit-look of being more than man, and the stories that were
+attached to his name in the alley filled them with a worshipful awe. There
+was little likelihood of trouble for Michael with any of the officers he
+knew. But Sam was another proposition. His life had not all been strictly
+virtuous in the past, and of late he had been away in New Jersey so much
+that he was little known, and would be at once suspected of having been the
+cause of the trouble. Besides, the woman lay unconscious at their feet!
+
+With a mighty effort Michael now reached forth and plucked Sam, struggling
+fiercely, from the arms of his antagonist and put him behind him in the
+doorway, standing firmly in front. Carter thus released, sprawled for
+an instant in the road, then taking advantage of the momentary release
+struggled to his feet and fled in the opposite direction from that in which
+the officers were approaching.
+
+"Let me go! I must get him!" muttered Sam pushing fiercely to get by
+Michael.
+
+"No, Sam, stay where you are and keep quiet. You'll gain nothing by running
+after him. You'll only get into trouble yourself."
+
+"I don't care!" said Sam frantically, "I don't care what happens to me.
+I'll kill him. He stole my girl!"
+
+But Michael stood before him like a wail of adamant in the strength that
+was his for the extremity.
+
+"Yes, Sam, my poor fellow. I know," said Michael gently, sadly. "I know,
+Sam. He stole mine too!"
+
+Sam subsided as if he had been struck, a low awful curse upon his lips, his
+face pale and baleful.
+
+"You, too?" The yearning tenderness went to Michael's heart like sweet
+salve, even in the stress of the moment. They were brothers in sorrow, and
+their brotherhood saved Sam from committing a crime.
+
+Then the police and crowd swept up breathless.
+
+"What does all this mean?" panted a policeman touching his cap respectfully
+to Michael. "Some one been shooting?"
+
+He stooped and peered into the white face of the still unconscious woman,
+and then looked suspiciously toward Sam who was standing sullenly behind
+Michael.
+
+"He's all right," smiled Michael throwing an arm across Sam's shoulder, "He
+only came in to help me when he saw I was having a hard time of it. The
+fellow made off in that direction." Michael pointed after Carter whose form
+had disappeared in the darkness.
+
+"Any of the gang?" asked the officer as he hurried away.
+
+"No!" said Michael. "He doesn't belong here!"
+
+One officer hurried away accompanied by a crowd, the other stayed to look
+after the woman. He touched the woman with his foot as he might have tapped
+a dying dog to see if there was still life there. A low growl like a fierce
+animal came from Sam's closed lips.
+
+Michael put a warning hand upon, his arm.
+
+"Steady, Sam, steady!" he murmured, and went himself and lifted the poor
+pretty head of the girl from its stony pillow.
+
+"I think you'd better send for the ambulance," he said to the officer.
+"She's had a heavy blow on her head. I arrived just in time to see the
+beginning of the trouble--"
+
+"Ain't she dead?" said the officer indifferently. "Best get her into her
+house. Don't reckon they want to mess up the hospital with such cattle as
+this."
+
+Michael caught the fierce gleam in Sam's eyes. A second more would have
+seen the officer lying beside the girl in the road and a double tragedy to
+the record of that night; for Sam was crouched and moving stealthily like a
+cat toward the officer's back, a look of almost insane fury upon his small
+thin face. It was Michael's steady voice that recalled him to sanity once
+more, just as many a time in the midst of a game he had put self-control
+and courage into the hearts of his team.
+
+"Sam, could you come here and hold her head a minute, while I try to get
+some water? Yes, officer, I think she is living, and she should be got to
+the hospital as soon as possible. Please give the call at once."
+
+The officer sauntered off to do his bidding. Michael and Sam began working
+over the unconscious girl, and the crowd stood idly round waiting until the
+ambulance rattled up. They watched with awe as the form of the woman was
+lifted in and Michael and Sam climbed up on the front seat with the driver
+and rode away; then they drifted away to their several beds and the street
+settled into its brief night respite.
+
+The two young men waited at the hospital for an hour until a white-capped
+nurse came to tell them that Lizzie had recovered consciousness, and there
+was hope of her life. Then they went out into the late night together.
+
+"Sam, you're coming home with me to-night!" Michael put his arm
+affectionately around Sam's shoulders, "You never would come before, but
+you must come to-night."
+
+And Sam, looking into the other's face for an instant, saw that in
+Michael's suffering eyes that made him yield.
+
+"I ain't fit!" Sam murmured as they walked along silently together. It was
+the first hint that Sam had ever given that he was not every whit as good
+as Michael; and Michael with rare tact had never by a glance let Sam know
+how much he wished to have him cleaner, and more suitably garbed.
+
+"Oh, we'll make that all right!" said Michael fervently thankful that
+at last the time had come for the presentation of the neat and fitting
+garments which he had purchased some weeks before for a present for Sam,
+and which had been waiting for a suitable opportunity of presentation.
+
+The dawn was hovering in the East when Michael led Sam up to his own room,
+and throwing wide the door of his own little private bath-room told Sam to
+take a hot bath, it would make him feel better.
+
+While Sam was thus engaged Michael made a compact bundle of Sam's old
+garments, and stealing softly to the back hall window, landed them by a
+neat throw on the top of the ash barrel in the court below. Sam's clothes
+might see the alley again by way of the ash man, but never on Sam's back.
+
+Quite late that very same morning, when Sam, clothed and in a new and
+righter mind than ever before in his life, walked down with Michael to
+breakfast, and was introduced as "my friend Mr. Casey" to the landlady, who
+was hovering about the now deserted breakfast table; he looked every inch
+of him a respectable citizen. Not handsome and distinguished like Michael,
+of course, but quite unnoticeable, and altogether proper as a guest at the
+respectable breakfast table of Mrs. Semple.
+
+Michael explained that they had been detained out late the night before by
+an accident, and Mrs. Semple gave special orders for a nice breakfast to be
+served to Mr. Endicott and his friend, and said it wasn't any trouble at
+all.
+
+People always thought it was no trouble to do things for Michael.
+
+While they ate, Michael arranged with Sam to take a trip out to see Buck.
+
+"I was expecting to go this morning," he said. "I had my plans all made.
+They write me that Buck is getting uneasy and they wish I'd come, but
+now"--he looked meaningly at Sam--"I think I ought to stay here for a
+little. Could you go in my place? There are things here I must attend to."
+
+Sam looked, and his face grew dark with sympathy. He understood.
+
+"I'll keep you informed about Lizzie," went on Michael with delicate
+intuition, "and anyway you couldn't see her for sometime, I think if you
+try you could help Buck as much as I. He needs to understand that breaking
+laws is all wrong. That it doesn't pay in the end, and that there has got
+to be a penalty--you know. You can make him see things in a new way if you
+try. Are you willing to go, Sam?"
+
+"I'll go," said Sam briefly, and Michael knew he would do his best. It
+might be that Sam's change of viewpoint would have more effect upon Buck
+than anything Michael could say. For it was an open secret between Sam and
+Michael now that Sam stood for a new order of things and that the old life,
+so far as he was concerned, he had put away.
+
+And so Sam was got safely away from the danger spot, and Michael stayed to
+face his sorrow, and the problem of how to save Starr.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+The papers the next morning announced that Mr. Stuyvesant Carter while
+taking a short cut through the lower quarter of the city, had been cruelly
+attacked, beaten and robbed, and had barely escaped with his life.
+
+He was lying in his rooms under the care of a trained nurse, and was
+recovering as rapidly as could be expected from the shock.
+
+Michael reading it next morning after seeing Sam off to Kansas, lifted his
+head with that quiet show of indignation. He knew that the message must
+have been telephoned to the paper by Carter himself shortly after he had
+escaped from the police. He saw just how easy it was for him to give out
+any report he chose. Money and influence would buy even the public press.
+It would be little use to try to refute anything he chose to tell about
+himself.
+
+The days that followed were to Michael one long blur of trouble. He haunted
+Mr. Endicott's office in hopes of getting some news of his return but they
+told him the last letters had been very uncertain. He might come quickly,
+and he might be delayed a month yet, or even longer; and a cablegram might
+not reach him much sooner than a letter, as he was travelling from place to
+place.
+
+After three days of this agony, knowing that the enemy would soon be
+recovering from his bruises and be about again, he reluctantly wrote a note
+to Starr:
+
+"My dear Miss Endicott:
+
+"At the risk of offending you I feel that I must make one more attempt to
+save you from what I feel cannot but be great misery. The young man of whom
+we were speaking has twice to my knowledge visited a young woman of the
+slums within the last month, and has even since your engagement been
+maintaining an intimacy with her which can be nothing but an insult to you.
+Though you may not believe me, it gives me greater pain to tell you this
+than anything I ever had to do before, I have tried in every way I know to
+communicate with your father, but have thus far failed. I am writing you
+thus plainly and painfully, hoping that though you will not take my word
+for it, you will at least be willing to find some trustworthy intimate
+friend of your family in whom you can confide, who will investigate this
+matter for you, and give you his candid opinion of the young man. I can
+furnish such a man with information as to where to go to get the facts.
+I know that what I have said is true. I beg for the sake of your future
+happiness that you will take means to discover for yourself.
+
+"Faithfully yours,
+
+"Michael"
+
+To this note, within two days, he received a condescending, patronizing
+reply:
+
+"Michael:
+
+"I am exceedingly sorry that you have lent yourself to means so low to
+accomplish your end, whatever that may be. It is beyond me to imagine what
+possible motive you can have for all this ridiculous calumny that you are
+trying to cast on one who has shown a most noble spirit toward you.
+
+"Mr. Carter has fully explained to me his presence at the home of that
+girl, and because you seem to really believe what you have written me, and
+because I do not like to have _anyone_ think evil of the man whom I am
+soon to marry, I am taking the trouble to explain to you. The young woman
+is a former maid of Mr. Carter's mother, and she is deeply attached to her.
+She does up Mrs. Carter's fine laces exquisitely, and Mr. Carter has twice
+been the bearer of laces to be laundered, because his mother was afraid to
+trust such valuable pieces to a servant. I hope you will now understand
+that the terrible things you have tried to say against Mr. Carter are
+utterly false. Such things are called blackmail and bring terrible
+consequences in court I am told if they become known, so I must warn you
+never to do anything of this sort again. It is dangerous. If my father
+were at home he would explain it to you. Of course, having been in that
+out-of-the-way Florida place for so long you don't understand these things,
+but for papa's sake I would not like you to get into trouble in any way.
+
+"There is one more thing I must say. Mr. Carter tells me that he saw
+you down in that questionable neighborhood, and that you are yourself
+interested in this girl. It seems strange when this is the case, that you
+should have thought so ill of him.
+
+"Trusting that you will cause me no further annoyance in this matter,
+
+"S.D. Endicott."
+
+When Michael had read this he bowed himself upon his desk as one who had
+been stricken unto death. To read such words from her whom he loved better
+than his own soul was terrible! And he might never let her know that these
+things that had been said of him were false. She would probably go always
+with the idea that his presence in that alley was a matter of shame to him.
+So far as his personal part in the danger to herself was concerned, he was
+from this time forth powerless to help her. If she thought such things of
+him,--if she had really been made to believe them,--then of course she
+could credit nothing he told her. Some higher power than his would have to
+save her if she was to be saved.
+
+To do Starr justice she had been very much stirred by Michael's note, and
+after a night of wakefulness and meditation had taken the letter to her
+mother. Not that Starr turned naturally to her most unnatural mother for
+help in personal matters usually; but there seemed to be no one else to
+whom she could go. If only her father had been home! She thought of cabling
+him, but what could she say in a brief message? How could she make him
+understand? And then there was always the world standing by to peer
+curiously over one's shoulder when one sent a message. She could not hope
+to escape the public eye.
+
+She considered showing Michael's note to Morton, her faithful nurse, but
+Morton, wise in many things, would not understand this matter, and would be
+powerless to help her. So Starr had gone to her mother.
+
+Mrs. Endicott, shrewd to perfection, masked her indignation under a very
+proper show of horror, told Starr that of course it was not true, but
+equally of course it must be investigated; gave her word that she would do
+so immediately and her daughter need have no further thought of the matter;
+sent at once for young Carter with whom she held a brief consultation at
+the end of which Starr was called and cheerfully given the version of the
+story which she had written to Michael.
+
+Stuyvesant Carter could be very alluring when he tried, and he chose to
+try. The stakes were a fortune, a noble name, and a very pretty girl with
+whom he was as much in love at present as he ever had been in his checkered
+career, with any girl. Moreover he had a nature that held revenge long. He
+delighted to turn the story upon the man who pretended to be so righteous
+and who had dared to give him orders about a poor worthless girl of
+the slums. He set his cunning intellect to devise a scheme whereby his
+adversary should be caught in his own net and brought low. He found a
+powerful ally in the mother of the girl he was to marry.
+
+For reasons of ambition Mrs. Endicott desired supremely an alliance with
+the house of Carter, and she was most determined that nothing should upset
+her plans for her only daughter's marriage.
+
+She knew that if her husband should return and hear any hint of the story
+about Carter he would at once put an end to any relations between him and
+Starr. He had always been "queer" about such things, and "particular," as
+she phrased it. It would be mortifying beyond anything to have any balk in
+the arrangements after things had gone thus far; and there was that hateful
+Mrs. Waterman, setting her cap for him so odiously everywhere even since
+the engagement had been announced. Mrs. Endicott intended to risk nothing.
+Therefore she planned with the young people for an early marriage. She was
+anxious to have everything so thoroughly cut and dried, and matters gone
+so far that her husband could not possibly upset them when he returned.
+Finally she cabled him, asking him to set a positive date for his
+home-coming as the young people wished to arrange for an early wedding.
+He cabled back a date not so very far off, for in truth, though he had
+received none of Michael's warnings he was uneasy about this matter of his
+daughter's engagement. Young Carter had of course seemed all right, and he
+saw no reason to demur when his wife wrote that the two young people had
+come to an understanding, but somehow it had not occurred to him that the
+marriage would be soon. He was troubled at thought of losing the one bright
+treasure of his home, when he had but just got her back again from her
+European education. He felt that it was unfortunate that imperative
+business had called him abroad almost as soon as she returned. He was in
+haste to be back.
+
+But when his wife followed her cable message with, a letter speaking of an
+immediate marriage and setting a date but four days after the time set for
+his arrival, he cabled to her to set no date until his return, which would
+be as soon as he could possibly come.
+
+However, Mrs. Endicott had planned well. The invitations had been sent out
+that morning. She thought it unnecessary to cable again but wrote, "I'm
+sorry, but your message came too late. The invitations are all out now, and
+arrangements going forward. I knew you would not want to stop Starr's
+plans and she seems to have her heart set on being married at once. Dear
+Stuyvesant finds it imperative to take an ocean trip and he cannot bear the
+thought of going without his wife. I really do not see how things could
+possibly be held off now. We should be the laughing stock of society and
+I am sure you would not want me to endure that. And Starr, dear child, is
+quite childishly happy over her arrangements. She is only anxious to
+have you properly home in time, so do hurry and get an earlier boat if
+possible."
+
+Over this letter Mr. Endicott frowned and looked troubled. His wife had
+ever taken things in her own hands where she would; but concerning Starr
+they had never quite agreed, though he had let her have her own way about
+everything else. It was like her to get this marriage all fixed up while
+he was away. Of course it must be all right, but it was so sudden! And his
+little Starr! His one little girl!
+
+Then, with his usual abrupt action he put the letter in his inner pocket
+and proceeded to hurry his business as much as possible that he might take
+an earlier boat than the one he had set. And he finally succeeded by dint
+of working night as well as day, and leaving several important matters to
+go as they would.
+
+The papers at last announced that Mr. Delevan Endicott who had been abroad
+for three months on business had sailed for home and would reach New York
+nearly a week before the date set for the wedding. The papers also were
+filled with elaborate foreshadowings of what that event was likely to mean
+to the world of society.
+
+And Michael, knowing that he must drink every drop of his bitter cup,
+knowing that he must suffer and endure to the end of it, if perchance he
+might yet save her in some miraculous way, read every word, and knew the
+day and the hour of the boat's probable arrival. He had it all planned to
+meet that boat himself. If possible he would go out on the pilot and meet
+his man before he landed.
+
+Then the silence of the great deep fell about the traveller; and the days
+went by with the waiting one in the city; the preparations hurried forward
+by trained and skilful workers. The Endicott home was filled with comers
+and goers. Silks and satins and costly fabrics, laces and jewels and
+rare trimmings from all over the world were brought together by hands
+experienced in costuming the great of the earth.
+
+Over the busy machinery which she had set going, Mrs. Endicott presided
+with the calmness and positive determination of one who had a great purpose
+in view and meant to carry it out. Not a detail escaped, her vigilant eye,
+not an item was forgotten of all the millions of little necessities that
+the world expected and she must have forthcoming. Nothing that could make
+the wedding unique, artistic, perfect, was too hard or too costly to be
+carried out. This was her pinnacle of opportunity to shine, and Mrs.
+Endicott intended to make the most of it. Not that she had not shone
+throughout her worldly career, but she knew that with the marriage of her
+daughter her life would reach its zenith point and must henceforth begin
+to decline. This event must be one to be remembered in the annals of
+the future so long as New York should continue to marry and be given in
+marriage. Starr's wedding must surpass all others in wonder and beauty and
+elegance.
+
+So she planned, wrought, carried out; and day by day the gleam in her eyes
+told that she was nearing her triumph.
+
+It did not disturb her when the steamer was overdue one whole day, and then
+two. Starr, even amid the round of gaieties in her young set, all given in
+her honor, found time to worry about her father; but the wife only found
+in this fact a cause for congratulation. She felt instinctively that her
+crucial time was coming when her husband reached home. If Michael had dared
+to carry out his threats, or if a breath of the stories concerning young
+Carter's life should reach him there would be trouble against which she had
+no power.
+
+It was not until the third morning with still no news of the vessel that
+Mrs. Endicott began to feel uneasy. It would be most awkward to have to
+put off the ceremony, and of course it would not do to have it without the
+bride's father when he was hurrying to be present. If he would arrive just
+in time so much the better; but late--ah--that would be dreadful! She
+tightened her determined lips, and looked like a Napoleon saying to
+herself, "There shall be no Alps!" In like manner she would have said if
+she could: "There shall be no sea if I wish it."
+
+But the anxiety she felt was only manifested by her closer vigilance over
+her helpers as swiftly and hourly the perfected preparations glided to
+their finish.
+
+Starr grew nervous and restless and could not sleep, but hovered from room
+to room in the daytime looking out of the windows, or fitfully telephoning
+the steamship company for news. Her fiancé found her most unsatisfactory
+and none of the plans he proposed for her diversion pleased her. Dark rings
+appeared under her eyes, and she looked at him with a troubled expression
+sometimes when she should have been laughing in the midst of a round of
+pleasures.
+
+Starr deeply loved her father, and some vague presentiment of coming
+trouble seemed to shadow all the brightness of life. Now and then Michael's
+face with its great, true eyes, and pleading expression came between
+her and Carter's face, and seemed to blur its handsome lines; and then
+indefinite questions haunted her. What if those terrible things Michael had
+said were true? Was she sure, _sure_? And at times like that she fancied
+she saw a weakness in the lines about Carter's eyes and mouth.
+
+But she was most unused to studying character, poor child, and had no guide
+to help her in her lonely problem of choosing; for already she had learned
+that her mother's ways and hers were not the same; and--her father--did not
+come. When he came it would be all right. It had to be, for there was no
+turning back, of course, now. The wedding was but two days off.
+
+Michael, in his new office, frankly acknowledged to himself these days that
+he could not work. He had done all that he could and now was waiting for
+a report of that vessel. When it landed he hoped to be the first man on
+board; in fact, he had made arrangement to go out to meet it before it
+landed. But it did not come! Was it going to be prevented until the day was
+put off? Would that make matters any better? Would he then have more time?
+And could he accomplish anything with Mr. Endicott, even, supposing he had
+time? Was he not worse than foolish to try? Mr. Endicott was already angry
+with him for another reason. His wife and Starr, and that scoundrel of a
+Carter, would tell all sorts of stories. Of course he would believe them in
+preference to his! He groaned aloud sometimes, when, he was alone in the
+office: and wished that there were but a way he could fling himself between
+Starr and all evil once for all; give his life for hers. Gladly, gladly
+would he do it if it would do any good. Yet there was no way.
+
+And then there came news. The vessel had been heard from still many miles
+out to sea, with one of her propellers broken, and laboring along at great
+disadvantage. But if all went well she would reach her dock at noon of the
+following day--eight hours before the time set for the wedding!
+
+Starr heard and her face blossomed, into smiles. All would go well after
+all. She telephoned again to the steamship company a little while later and
+her utmost fears were allayed by their assurances.
+
+Mrs. Endicott heard the news with intense relief. Her husband would
+scarcely have time to find out anything. She must take pains that he had no
+opportunity to see Michael before the ceremony.
+
+The young man heard and his heart beat wildly. Would the time be long
+enough to save her?
+
+Noon of the next day came, but the steamer had not yet landed, though the
+news from her was good. She would be in before night, there was no doubt of
+it now. Mr. Endicott would be in time for the wedding, but just that and no
+more. He had sent reassurances to his family, and they were going forward
+happily in the whirl of the last things.
+
+But Michael in his lonely office hung up the telephone receiver with a
+heavy heart. There would be no time now to save Starr. Everything was
+against him. Even if he could get speech of Mr. Endicott which was doubtful
+now, was it likely the man would listen at this the last minute? Of course
+his wife and daughter and her fiancé could easily persuade him all was
+well, and Michael a jealous fool!
+
+As he sat thus with bowed head before his desk, he heard footsteps along
+the stone floor of the corridor outside. They halted at his door, and
+hesitating fingers fumbled with the knob. He looked up frowning and was
+about to send any chance client away, with the explanation that he was
+entirely too much occupied at present to be interrupted, when the face of
+the woman who opened the door caught his attention.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+It was Lizzie, with her baby in her arms; the girl he had defended in the
+alley, and whose face he had last seen lying white and unconscious in the
+moonlight, looking ghastly enough with the dark hair flung back against the
+harsh pillow of stone.
+
+The face was white now, but softened with the beauty of motherhood. The
+bold, handsome features had somehow taken on a touch of gentleness, though
+there glowed and burned in her dark eyes a fever of passion and unrest.
+
+She stood still for a moment looking at Michael after she had closed the
+door, and was holding the baby close as if fearing there might be some one
+there who was minded to take it from her.
+
+As Michael watched her, fascinated, cut to the heart by the dumb suffering
+in her eyes, he was reminded of one of the exquisite Madonnas he had
+seen in an exhibition not long ago. The draperies had been dainty and
+cloud-like, and the face refined and wonderful in its beauty, but there had
+been the same sorrowful mother-anguish in the eyes. It passed through his
+mind that this girl and he were kin because of a mutual torture. His face
+softened, and he felt a great pity for her swelling in his heart.
+
+His eyes wandered to the little upturned face of the baby wrapped close
+in the shabby shawl against its mother's breast. It was a very beautiful
+little sleeping face, with a look still of the spirit world from which
+it had but recently come. There was something almost unearthly in its
+loveliness, appealing even in its sleep, with its innocent baby curves and
+outlines. A little stranger soul, whose untried feet had wandered into
+unwelcome quarters where sorrows and temptations were so thickly strewn
+that it could not hope to escape them.
+
+What had the baby come for? To make one more of the swarming mass of sinful
+wretches who crowded the alley? Would those cherub lips half-parted now in
+a seraphic smile live to pour forth blasphemous curses as he had heard even
+very small children in the alley? Would that tiny sea-shell hand, resting
+so trustingly against the coarse cloth of its mother's raiment, looking
+like a rosebud gone astray, live to break open safes and take their
+contents? Would the lovely little soft round body whose tender curves
+showed pitifully beneath the thin old shawl, grow up to lie in the gutter
+some day? The problem of the people had never come to Michael so forcibly,
+so terribly as in that moment before Lizzie spoke.
+
+"Be you a real lawyer?" she asked. "Kin you tell what the law is 'bout
+folks and thin's?"
+
+Michael smiled and rose to give her a chair as courteously as though she
+had been a lady born.
+
+"Sit down," he said. "Yes, I am a lawyer. What can I do for you?"
+
+"I s'pose you charge a lot," said the girl with a meaning glance around the
+room. "You've got thin's fixed fine as silk here. But I'll pay anythin' you
+ast ef it takes me a lifetime to do it, ef you'll jest tell me how I kin
+git my rights."
+
+"Your rights?" questioned Michael sadly. Poor child! _Had_ she any rights
+in the universe that he could help her to get? The only rights he knew for
+such as she were room in a quiet graveyard and a chance to be forgotten.
+
+"Say, ain't it against the law fer a man to marry a woman when he's already
+got one wife?"
+
+"It is," said Michael, "unless he gets a divorce."
+
+"Well, I ain't goin' to give him no divorce, you bet!" said the girl
+fiercely. "I worked hard enough to get a real marriage an' I ain't goin' to
+give up to no fash'nable swell. I'm's good's she is, an' I've got my rights
+an I'll hev 'em. An' besides, there's baby--!" Her face softened and took
+on a love light; and immediately Michael was reminded of the madonna
+picture again. "I've got to think o' him!" Michael marvelled to see that
+the girl was revelling in her possession, of the little helpless burden who
+had been the cause of her sorrow.
+
+"Tell me about it." His voice was very gentle. He recalled suddenly that
+this was Sam's girl. Poor Sam, too! The world was a terribly tangled mess
+of trouble.
+
+"Well, there ain't much to tell that counts, only he kep' comp'ny with me,
+an' I wouldn't hev ennythin' else but a real marriage, an' so he giv in,
+an' we hed a couple o' rooms in a real respectable house an' hed it fine
+till he had to go away on business, he said. I never 'b'leeved that. Why he
+was downright rich. He's a real swell, you know. What kind o' business cud
+he have?" Lizzie straightened herself proudly and held her head high.
+
+"About whom are you talking?" asked Michael.
+
+"Why, my husband, 'course, Mr. Sty-ve-zant Carter. You ken see his name in
+the paper real often. He didn't want me to know his real name. He hed me
+call him Dan Hunt fer two months, but I caught on, an' he was real mad fer
+a while. He said his ma didn't like the match, an' he didn't want folks to
+know he'd got married, it might hurt him with some of his swell friends--"
+
+"You don't mean to tell me that Mr. Stuyvesant Carter ever really married
+you!" said Michael incredulously.
+
+"Sure!" said Lizzie proudly, "married me jest like enny swell; got me a
+dimon ring an' a silk lined suit an' a willer plume an everythin'." Lizzie
+held up a grimy hand on which Michael saw a showy glitter of jewelry.
+
+"Have you anything to show for it?" asked Michael, expecting her of course
+to say no. "Have you any certificate or paper to prove that you were
+married according to law?"
+
+"Sure!" said Lizzie triumphantly, drawing forth a crumpled roll from the
+folds of her dress and smoothing it out before his astonished eyes.
+
+There it was, a printed wedding certificate, done in blue and gold with a
+colored picture of two clasped hands under a white dove with a gold ring
+in its beak. Beneath was an idealized boat with silken sails bearing two
+people down a rose-lined river of life; and the whole was bordered with
+orange blossoms. It was one of those old-fashioned affairs that country
+ministers used to give their parishioners in the years gone by, and are
+still to be had in some dusty corners of a forgotten drawer in country book
+stores. But Michael recognized at once that it was a real certificate. He
+read it carefully. The blanks were all filled in, the date she gave of the
+marriage was there, and the name of the bridegroom though evidently written
+in a disguised hand could be deciphered: "Sty. Carter." Michael did not
+recognize the names of either the witnesses or the officiating minister.
+
+"How do you happen to have Mr. Carter's real name here when you say he
+married you under an assumed name?" he asked moving his finger thoughtfully
+over the blurred name that had evidently been scratched out and written
+over again.
+
+"I made him put it in after I found out who he was," said Lizzie. "He
+couldn't come it over me thet-a-way. He was awful gone on me then, an' I
+cud do most ennythin' with him. It was 'fore she cum home from Europe! She
+jes' went fer him an' turned his head. Ef I'd a-knowed in time I'd gone an'
+tole her, but land sakes! I don't 'spose 'twould a done much good. I would
+a-ben to her before, only I was fool 'nough to promise him I wouldn't say
+nothin' to her ef he'd keep away from her. You see I needed money awful bad
+fer baby. He don't take to livin' awful good. He cries a lot an' I bed to
+hev thin's fer 'im, so I threatened him ef he didn't do sompin' I'd go tell
+her; an' he up an' forked over, but not till I promised. But now they say
+the papers is tellin' he's to marry her to-night, an' I gotta stop it
+somehow. I got my rights an' baby's to look after, promise er no promise,
+Ken I get him arrested?"
+
+"I am not sure what you can do until I look into the matter," Michael said
+gravely. Would the paper he held help or would it not, in his mission to
+Starr's father? And would it be too late? His heavy heart could not answer.
+
+"Do you know these witnesses?"
+
+"Sure." said Lizzie confidently. "They're all swells. They come down with
+him when he come to be married. I never seen 'em again, but they was real
+jolly an' nice. They give me a bokay of real roses an' a bracelet made like
+a snake with green glass eyes."
+
+"And the minister? Which is his church?"
+
+"I'm sure I donno," said Lizzie. "I never ast. He Come along an' was ez
+jolly ez enny of 'em. He drank more'n all of 'em put together. He was awful
+game fer a preacher."
+
+Michael's heart began to sink. Was this a genuine marriage after all? Could
+anything be proved? He questioned the girl carefully, and after a few
+minutes sent her on her way promising to do all in his power to help her
+and arranging to let her know as soon as possible if there was anything she
+could do.
+
+That was a busy afternoon for Michael. The arrival of the steamer was
+forgotten. His telephone rang vainly on his desk to a silent room. He was
+out tramping over the city in search of the witnesses and the minister who
+had signed Lizzie's marriage certificate.
+
+Meantime the afternoon papers came out with a glowing account of the
+wedding that was to be, headed by the pictures of Starr and Mr. Carter, for
+the wedding was a great event in society circles.
+
+Lizzie on her hopeful way back to the alley, confident that Michael, the
+angel of the alley, would do something for her, heard the boys crying the
+afternoon edition of the paper, and was seized with a desire to see if her
+husband's picture would be in again. She could ill spare the penny from her
+scanty store that she spent for it, but then, what was money in a case like
+this? Michael would do something for her and she would have more money.
+Besides, if worst came to worst she would go to the fine lady and threaten
+to make it all public, and she would give her money.
+
+Lizzie had had more advantages than most of her class in the alley. She had
+worked in a seashore restaurant several summers and could read a little.
+From the newspaper account she gathered enough to rouse her half-soothed
+frenzy. Her eyes flashed fire as she went about her dark little tenement
+room making baby comfortable. His feeble wail and his sweet eyes looking
+into hers only fanned the fury of her flame. She determined not to wait
+for Michael, but to go on her own account at once to that girl that was
+stealing away her husband, her baby's father, and tell her what she was
+doing.
+
+With the cunning of her kind Lizzie dressed herself in her best; a soiled
+pink silk shirtwaist with elbow sleeves, a spotted and torn black skirt
+that showed a tattered orange silk petticoat beneath its ungainly length,
+a wide white hat with soiled and draggled willow plume of Alice blue, and
+high-heeled pumps run over on their uppers. If she had but known it she
+looked ten times better in the old Madonna shawl she had worn to
+Michael's office, but she took great satisfaction in being able to dress
+appropriately when she went to the swells.
+
+The poor baby she wrapped in his soiled little best, and pinned a large
+untidy pink satin bow on the back of his dirty little blanket. Then she
+started on her mission.
+
+Now Starr had just heard that her father's vessel would be at the dock in
+a trifle over an hour and her heart was light and happy. Somehow all her
+misgivings seemed to flee away, now that he was coming. She flew from one
+room to another like a wild bird, trilling snatches of song, and looking
+prettier than ever.
+
+"Aw, the wee sweet bairnie!" murmured the old Scotch nurse. "If only her
+man will be gude to her!"
+
+There was some special bit of Starr's attire for the evening that had not
+arrived. She was in a twitter of expectancy about it, to be sure it pleased
+her, and when she heard the bell she rushed to the head of the stairs and
+was half-way down to see if it had come, when the servant opened the door
+to Lizzie and her baby.
+
+One second more and the door would have closed hopelessly on poor Lizzie,
+for no servant in that house would have thought of admitting such a
+creature to the presence of their lady a few hours before her wedding; but
+Starr, poised half-way on the landing, called, "What is it, Graves, some
+one to see me?"
+
+"But she's not the sort of person--Miss Starr!" protested Graves with the
+door only open a crack now.
+
+"Never mind, Graves, I'll see her for a minute. I can't deny anyone on my
+wedding day you know, and father almost safely here. Show her into the
+little reception room." She smiled a ravishing smile on the devoted Graves,
+so with many qualms of conscience and misgivings as to what the mistress
+would say if she found out, Graves ushered Lizzie and her baby to the room
+indicated and Starr fluttered down to see her. So it was Starr's own doings
+that Lizzie came into her presence on that eventful afternoon.
+
+"Oh, what a sweet baby!" exclaimed Starr eagerly, "is he yours?" Lizzie's
+fierce eyes softened.
+
+"Sit down and tell me who you are. Wait, I'll have some tea brought for
+you. You look tired. And won't you let me give that sweet baby a little
+white shawl of mine. I'm to be married to-night and I'd like to give him a
+wedding present," she laughed gaily, and Morton was sent for the shawl and
+another servant for the tea, while Starr amused herself by making the baby
+crow at her.
+
+Lizzie sat in wonder. Almost for the moment she forgot her errand watching
+this sweet girl in her lovely attire making much of her baby. But when
+the tea had been brought and the soft white wool shawl wrapped around the
+smiling baby Starr said again:
+
+"Now please tell me who you are and what you have come for. I can't give
+you but a minute or two more. This is a busy day, you know."
+
+Lizzie's brow darkened.
+
+"I'm Mrs. Carter!" she said drawing herself up with conscious pride.
+
+"Carter?" said Starr politely.
+
+"Yes, I'm the wife of the man you're goin' to marry to-night, an' this is
+his child, I thought I'd come an' tell you 'fore 'twas too late. I thought
+ef you had enny goodness in you you'd put a stop to this an' give me my
+rights, an' you seem to hev some heart. Can't you call it off? You wouldn't
+want to take my husband away from me, would you? You can get plenty others
+an' I'm jest a plain workin' girl, an' he's mine anyhow, an' this is his
+kid."
+
+Starr had started to her feet, her eyes wide, her hand fluttering to her
+heart.
+
+"Stop!" she cried. "You must be crazy to say such things. My poor girl, you
+have made a great mistake. Your husband is some other Mr. Carter I suppose.
+My Mr. Carter is not that kind of a man. He has never been married--"
+
+"Yes, he has!" interposed Lizzie fiercely, "He's married all right, an' I
+got the c'tif'ct all right too, only I couldn't bring it this time cause I
+lef' it with my lawyer; but you can see it ef you want to, with his name
+all straight, "Sty-Vee-Zant Carter," all writ out. I see to it that he writ
+it himself. I kin read meself, pretty good, so I knowed."
+
+"I am very sorry for you," said Starr sweetly, though her heart was heating
+violently in spite of her efforts to be calm and to tell herself that she
+must get rid of this wretched impostor without making a scene for the
+servants to witness: "I am very sorry, but you have made some great
+mistake. There isn't anything I can do for you now, but later when I come
+back to New York if you care to look me up I will try to do something for
+baby."
+
+Lizzie stood erect in the middle of the little room, her face slowly
+changing to a stony stare, her eyes fairly blazing with anger.
+
+"De'yer mean ter tell me yer a goin' t'go on an' marry my husban' jes'
+ez ef nothin' had happened? Ain't yer goin' ter ast him ef it's true ner
+nothin'? Ain't yer goin' t' find out what's true 'bout him? 'R d'ye want
+'im so bad ye don't care who yer hurt, or wot he is, so long's he makes a
+big splurge before folks? Ain't you a-goin' ter ast him 'bout it?"
+
+"Oh, why certainly, of course," said Starr as if she were pacifying a
+frantic child, "I can ask him. I will ask him of course, but I _know_ that
+you are mistaken. Now really, I shall have to say good afternoon. I haven't
+another minute to spare. You must go!"
+
+"I shan't stir a step till you promise me thet you'll ast him right
+straight away. Ain't you all got no telyphone? Well, you kin call him up
+an' ast him. Jest ast him why he didn't never speak to you of his wife
+Lizzie, and where he was the evenin' of Augus' four. That's the date on the
+c'tif'ct! Tell him you seen me an' then see wot he says. Tell him my lawyer
+is a goin' to fix him ef he goes on. It'll be in all the papers to-morrer
+mornin' ef he goes on. An' you c'n say I shan't never consent to no
+_di_-vorce, they ain't respectable, an' I got to think o' that on baby's
+account."
+
+"If you will go quietly away now and say nothing more about this to anyone
+I will tell Mr. Carter all about you," said Starr, her voice trembling with
+the effort at self-control.
+
+"D'ye promus you will?"
+
+"Certainly," said Starr with dignity.
+
+"Will ye do it right off straight?"
+
+"Yes, if you will go at once."
+
+"Cross yer heart?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Cross yer heart ye will? Thet's a sort o' oath t' make yer keep yer
+promus," explained Lizzie.
+
+"A lady needs no such thing to make her keep her promise. Don't you know
+that ladies always keep their promises?"
+
+"I wasn't so sure!" said Lizzie, "You can't most allus tell, 't's bes' to
+be on the safe side. Will yer promus me yer won't marry him ef ye find out
+he's my husband?"
+
+"Most certainly I will not marry him if he is already married. Now go,
+please, at once. I haven't a minute to spare. If you don't go at once I
+cannot have time to call him up."
+
+"You sure I kin trust you?"
+
+Starr turned on the girl such a gaze of mingled dignity and indignation
+that her eye quailed before it.
+
+"Well, I s'pose I gotta," she said, dropping her eyes before Starr's
+righteous wrath. "But 'no weddin' bells' fer you to-night ef yeh keep yer
+promus. So long!"
+
+Starr shuddered as the girl passed her. The whiff of unwashed garments,
+stale cooking, and undefinable tenement odor that reached her nostrils
+sickened her. Was it possible that she must let this creature have a hold
+even momentarily upon her last few hours? Yet she knew she must. She knew
+she would not rest until she had been reassured by Carter's voice and the
+explanation that he would surely give her. She rushed upstairs to her own
+private 'phone, locking the door on even her old nurse, and called up the
+'phone in Carter's private apartments.
+
+Without owning it to herself she had been a little troubled all the
+afternoon because she had not heard from Carter. Her flowers had
+come,--magnificent in their costliness and arrangement, and everything he
+was to attend to was done, she knew, but no word had come from himself. It
+was unlike him.
+
+She knew that he had given a dinner the evening before to his old friends
+who were to be his ushers, and that the festivities would have lasted late.
+He had not probably arisen very early, of course, but it was drawing on
+toward the hour of the wedding now. She intended to begin to dress at once
+after she had 'phoned him. It was strange she had not heard from him.
+
+After much delay an unknown voice answered the 'phone, and told her Mr.
+Carter could not come now. She asked who it was but got no response, except
+that Mr. Carter couldn't come now. The voice had a muffled, thick sound.
+"Tell him to call me then as soon as possible," she said, and the voice
+answered, "Awright!"
+
+Reluctantly she hung up the receiver and called Morton to help her dress.
+She would have liked to get the matter out of the way before she went about
+the pretty ceremony, and submitted herself to her nurse's hands with an ill
+grace and troubled thoughts. The coarse beauty of Lizzie's face haunted
+her. It reminded her of an actress that Carter had once openly admired, and
+she had secretly disliked. She found herself shuddering inwardly every time
+she recalled Lizzie's harsh voice, and uncouth sentences.
+
+She paid little heed to the dressing process after all and let Morton have
+her way in everything, starting nervously when the 'phone bell rang, or
+anyone tapped at her door.
+
+A message came from her father finally. He hoped to be with her in less
+than an hour now, and as yet no word had come from Carter! Why did he not
+know she would be anxious? What could have kept him from his usual greeting
+of her, and on their wedding day!
+
+Suddenly, in the midst of Morton's careful draping of the wedding veil
+which she was trying in various ways to see just how it should be put on at
+the last minute, Starr started up from her chair.
+
+"I cannot stand this, Mortie. That will do for now. I must telephone Mr.
+Carter. I can't understand why he doesn't call me."
+
+"Oh, but the poor man is that busy!" murmured Morton excusingly as she
+hurried obediently out of the room. "Now, mind you don't muss that
+beautiful veil."
+
+But after a half hour of futile attempt to get into communication with
+Carter, Starr suddenly appeared in her door calling for her faithful nurse
+again.
+
+"Mortie!" she called excitedly. "Come here quick! I've ordered the
+electric. It's at the door now. Put on your big cloak and come with me!
+I've got to see Mr. Carter at once and I can't get him on the 'phone."
+
+"But Miss Starr!" protested Morton. "You've no time to go anywhere now, and
+look at your pretty veil!"
+
+"Never mind the veil, Mortie, I'm going. Hurry. I can't stop to explain.
+I'll tell you on the way. We'll be back before anyone has missed us."
+
+"But your mamma, Miss Starr! She will be very angry with me!"
+
+"Mamma must not know. And anyway I must go. Come, if you won't come with me
+I'm going alone."
+
+Starr with these words grasped a great cloak of dark green velvet, soft and
+pliable as a skin of fur, threw it over her white bridal robes, and hurried
+down the stairs.
+
+"Oh, Miss Starr, darlin'," moaned Morton looking hurriedly around for a
+cloak with which to follow. "You'll spoil yer veil sure! Wait till I take
+it off'n ye."
+
+But Starr had opened the front door and was already getting into the great
+luxurious car that stood outside.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+Michael, as he went about on his search kept crying over and over again
+in his heart: "Oh, God! Do something to save her! Do something to save my
+little Starr!"
+
+Over and over the prayer prayed itself without seeming thought or volition
+on his part, as he went from place to place, faithfully, keenly, step by
+step, searching out what he needed to know. At last toward six o'clock, his
+chain of evidence led him to the door of Stuyvesant Carter's apartments.
+
+After some delay the door was opened reluctantly a little way by a
+servant with an immobile mask of a face who stared at him stupidly, but
+finally admitted that the three men whose names he mentioned were inside.
+He also said that Mr. Carter was in, but could not be seen.
+
+He closed the door on the visitor and went inside again to see if any of
+the others would come out. There ensued an altercation in loud and somewhat
+unsteady tones, and at last the door opened again and a fast looking young
+man who admitted himself to be Theodore Brooks slid out and closed it
+carefully behind him. The air that came with him was thick with tobacco
+smoke and heavy with liquor, and the one glimpse Michael got of the room
+showed a strange radiance of some peculiar light that glowed into the dusky
+hall weirdly.
+
+The heavy-eyed youth who stood braced against the wall uncertainly looked
+into Michael's face with an impudent laugh.
+
+"Well, parson, what's the grouch? Are you the devil or an angel sent to
+bring retribution?" He ended with a silly laugh that told the experienced
+ear of the young lawyer that the young man had been drinking heavily. And
+this was the man whose name was signed as Rev. Theodore Brooks, D.D., on
+the tawdry little marriage certificate that Michael held in his hand. His
+heart sank at the futility of the task before him.
+
+"Are you a minister?" asked Michael briefly.
+
+"Am I a minister?" drawled young Brooks. "M-my-m-m-mnster! Well now that
+get's my goat! Say, boys, he wants t' kno' 'f I'm a m-min'ster! Min-ster of
+what? Min-ster plen-p'ten'sherry?"
+
+"Did you ever perform a marriage?" asked Michael sharply to stop the loud
+guffaw that was re-echoing through the polished corridors of the apartment.
+
+"P'form a m'riage, d'ye say? No, but I'm goin' perform 't a marriage
+to-night 'f the dead wakes up in time. Goin' t' be bes' man. Say, boys! Got
+'im 'wake yet? Gettin' late!"
+
+Michael in despair took hold of the other's arm and tried to explain what
+he wanted to know. Finally he succeeded in bringing the matter into the
+fellow's comprehension.
+
+"Wedding, oh, yes, I 'member, peach of a girl! Stuyvy awfully fond of her.
+No harm meant. Good joke! Yes,--I borr'wed Grand'F'ther Brooks's old gown'n
+ban's. Awf'lly good disguise! No harm meant--on'y good joke--girl awf'lly
+set on getting married. Stuyvy wanted t' please 'er--awfully good, joke--!"
+
+"A ghastly joke, I should say, sir!" said Michael sternly and then the door
+was flung open by hands from inside, loud angry voices protesting while
+another hand sought unavailingly to close the door again, but Michael came
+and planted himself in the open door and stood like an avenging angel come
+to call to judgment. The scene that was revealed to him was too horrifying
+for words.
+
+A long banquet table stood in the midst of the handsome room whose
+furnishings were of the costliest. Amid the scattered remains of the feast,
+napkins lying under the table, upset glasses still dripping their ruby
+contents down the damask of the tablecloth, broken china, scattered plates
+and silver, stood a handsome silver bound coffin, within which, pallid and
+deathlike, lay the handsome form of the bridegroom of the evening. All
+about the casket in high sconces burned tall tapers casting their spectral
+light over the scene.
+
+Distributed about the room lounging in chairs, fast asleep on the couches,
+lying under the table, fighting by the doorway, one standing on a velvet
+chair raising an unsteady glass of wine and making a flabby attempt at a
+drinking song, were ten young men, the flower of society, the expected
+ushers of the evening's wedding.
+
+Michael with his white face, his golden hair aflame in the flickering
+candle light, his eyes full of shocked indignation, stood for a moment
+surveying the scene, and all at once he knew that his prayer was answered.
+There would be no wedding that night.
+
+"Is this another of your ghastly jokes?" he turned to Brooks who stood by
+as master of ceremonies, not in the least disturbed by the presence of the
+stranger.
+
+"That's just what it is," stuttered Brooks, "a j-j-joke, a p-p-p-pract'cal
+joke. No harm meant, only Stuyvy's hard to wake up. Never did like gettin'
+up in the mornin'. Wake 'im up boys! Wake 'im up! Time to get dressed for
+the wedding!"
+
+"Has anyone sent word to Miss Endicott?"
+
+"Sent word to Mish Endicott? No, I'd 'no's they have. Think she'd care to
+come? Say, boys, that's a good joke. This old fellow--don't know who he
+is--devil'n all his angels p'raps--he s'gests we send word to Mish Endicott
+t' come' th' fun'ral--"
+
+"I said nothing of the kind," said Michael fiercely. "Have you no sense of
+decency? Go and wash your face and try to realize what you have been doing.
+Have some one telephone for a doctor. I will go and tell the family," and
+Michael strode out of the room to perform the hardest task that had ever
+yet fallen to his lot.
+
+He did not wait for the elevator but ran down the flights of stairs trying
+to steady his thoughts and realize the horror through which he had just
+passed.
+
+As he started down the last flight he heard the elevator door clang below,
+and as it shot past him he caught a glimpse of white garments and a face
+with eyes that he knew. He stopped short and looked upward. Was it--could
+it be? But no, of course not. He was foolish. He turned and compelled his
+feet to hurry down the rest of the stairs, but at the door his worst fears
+were confirmed, for there stood the great electric car, and the familiar
+face of the Endicott chauffeur assured him that some one of the family had
+just gone to the ghastly spectacle upstairs.
+
+In sudden panic he turned and fled up the stairs. He could not wait for
+elevators now. He fain would have had wings, the wings of a protecting
+angel, that he might reach her ere she saw that sight of horror.
+
+Yet even as he started he knew that he must be too late.
+
+Starr stopped startled in the open doorway, with Morton, protesting,
+apprehensive, just behind her. The soft cloak slid away from her down the
+satin of her gown, and left her revealed in all her wedding whiteness, her
+eyes like stars, her beautiful face flushed excitedly. Then the eyes rested
+on the coffin and its death-like occupant and her face went white as her
+dress, while a great horror grew in her eyes.
+
+Brooks, more nearly sober than the rest, saw her first, and hastened to do
+the honors.
+
+"Say, boys, she's come," he shouted. "Bride's come. Git up, Bobby Trascom.
+Don't yer know ye mustn't lie down, when there's a lady present--Van--get
+out from under that table. Help me pick up these things. Place all in a
+mess. Glad to see you, Mish Endicott--" He bowed low and staggered as he
+recovered himself.
+
+Starr turned her white face toward him:
+
+"Mr. Brooks," she said in a tone that sobered him somewhat, "what does it
+mean? Is he dead?"
+
+"Not at all, not at all, Mish Endicott," he tried to say gravely. "Have him
+all right in plenty time. Just a little joke, Mish Endicott. He's merely
+shlightly intoxicated--"
+
+But Starr heard no more. With a little stifled cry and a groping motion
+of her white-clad arms, she crumpled into a white heap at the feet of her
+horrified nurse. It was just as she fell that Michael appeared at the door,
+like the rescuing angel that he was, and with one withering glance at the
+huddled group of men he gathered her in his arms and sped down the stairs,
+faithful Morton puffing after him. Neither of them noticed a man who got
+out of the elevator just before Starr fell and walking rapidly toward the
+open door saw the whole action. In a moment more Mr. Endicott stood in the
+door surveying the scene before him with stern, wrathful countenance.
+
+Like a dash of cold water his appearance brought several of the
+participants in the disgraceful scene to their senses. A few questions and
+he was possessed of the whole shameful story; the stag dinner growing into
+a midnight orgy; the foolish dare, and the reckless acceptance of it by the
+already intoxicated bridegroom; the drugged drinks; and the practical joke
+carried out by brains long under the influence of liquor. Carter's man who
+had protested had been bound and gagged in the back room. The jokers had
+found no trouble in securing the necessary tools to carry out their joke.
+Money will buy anything, even an undertaker for a living man. The promise
+of secrecy and generous fees brought all they needed. Then when the ghastly
+work was completed and the unconscious bridegroom lying in state in his
+coffin amid the debris of the table, they drowned the horror of their deed
+in deeper drinking.
+
+Mr. Endicott turned from the scene, his soul filled with loathing and
+horror.
+
+He had reached home to find the house in a tumult and Starr gone. Morton,
+as she went out the door after her young mistress, had whispered to the
+butler their destination, and that they would return at once. She had an
+innate suspicion that it would be best for some one to know.
+
+Mr. Endicott at once ordered the runabout and hastened after them, arriving
+but a moment or two later. Michael had just vanished up the Apartment
+stairs as he entered the lower hallway. The vague indefinite trouble that
+had filled his mind concerning his daughter's marriage to a man he little
+knew except by reputation, crystallized into trouble, dear and distinct, as
+he hurried after his daughter. Something terrible must have come to Starr
+or she would never have hurried away practically alone at a time like this.
+
+The electric car was gone by the time Mr. Endicott reached the lower hall
+again, and he was forced to go back alone as he came, without further
+explanation of the affair than what he could see; but he had time in the
+rapid trip to become profoundly thankful that the disgraceful scene he
+had just left had occurred before and not after his daughter's marriage.
+Whatever alleviating circumstances there were to excuse the reckless victim
+of his comrade's joke, the fact remained that a man who could fall victim
+to a joke like that was not the companion for his daughter's life; she who
+had been shielded and guarded at every possible point, and loved as the
+very apple of his eye. His feelings toward the perpetrators of this
+gruesome sport were such that he dared not think about them yet. No
+punishment seemed too great for such. And she, his little Starr, had looked
+upon that shameful scene; had seen the man she was expecting to marry lying
+as one dead--! It was too awful! And what had it done to her? Had it killed
+her? Had the shock unsettled her mind? The journey to his home seemed
+longer than his whole ocean voyage. Oh, why had he not left business to go
+to the winds and come back long ago to shield his little girl!
+
+Meantime, Michael, his precious burden in his arms, had stepped into the
+waiting car, motioning Morton to follow and sit in the opposite seat. The
+delicate Paris frock trailed unnoticed under foot, and the rare lace of
+the veil fell back from the white face, but neither Michael nor the nurse
+thought of satin and lace now, as they bent anxiously above the girl to see
+if she still breathed.
+
+All the way to her home Michael held the lovely little bride in his arms,
+feeling her weight no more than a feather; fervently thankful that he might
+bear her thus for the moment, away from the danger that had threatened her
+life. He wished with all his heart he might carry her so to the ends of the
+earth and never stop until he had her safe from all harm that earth could
+bring. His heart thrilled wildly with the touch of her frail sweetness,
+even while his anxious face bent over her to watch for signs of returning
+consciousness.
+
+But she did not become conscious before she reached the house. His strong
+arms held her as gently as though she had been a baby as he stepped
+carefully out and carried her to her own room; laying her upon the white
+bed, where but two hours before the delicate wedding garments had been
+spread ready for her to put on. Then he stood back, reverently looked upon
+her dear face, and turned away. It was in the hall that he met her mother,
+and her face was fairly disfigured with her sudden recognition of him.
+
+"What! Is it you that have dared come into this house? The impertinence!
+I shall report all your doings to my husband. He will be very angry. I
+believe that you are at the bottom of this whole business! You shall
+certainly be dealt with as you deserve!"
+
+She hissed the words after him as Michael descended the stairs with bowed
+head and closed lips. It mattered not now what she said or thought of him.
+Starr was saved!
+
+He was about to pass out into the world again, away from her, away even
+from knowledge of how she came out of her swoon. He had no further right
+there now. His duty was done. He had been allowed to save her in her
+extremity!
+
+But just as he reached it the door opened and Mr. Endicott hurried in.
+
+He paused for an instant.
+
+"Son!" said he, "it was you who brought her home!" It was as if that
+conviction had but just been revealed to his perturbed mind. "Son, I'm
+obliged. Sit here till I come. I want to speak with you."
+
+The doctor came with a nurse, and Michael sat and listened to the distant
+voices in her room. He gathered from the sounds by and by that Starr was
+conscious, was better.
+
+Until then no one had thought of the wedding or of the waiting guests that
+would be gathering. Something must be done. And so it came about that as
+the great organ sounded forth the first notes of the wedding march--for by
+some blunder the bride's signal had been given to the organist when the
+Endicott car drew up at the church--that Michael, bare headed, with his hat
+in his hand, walked gravely up the aisle, unconscious of the battery of
+eyes, and astonished whispers of "Who is he? Isn't he magnificent? What
+does it mean? I thought the ushers were to come first?" until he stood
+calmly in the chancel and faced the wondering audience.
+
+If an angel had come straight down from heaven and interfered with their
+wedding they could not have been more astonished. For, as he stood beneath
+the many soft lights in front of the wall of living green and blossoms,
+with his white face and grave sweet dignity, they forgot for once to study
+the fashion of his coat, and sat awed before his beautiful face; for
+Michael wore to-night the look of transport with chin uplifted, glowing
+eyes, and countenance that showed the spirit shining through.
+
+The organist looked down, and instinctively hushed his music. Had he made
+some mistake? Then Michael spoke. Doubtless he should have gone to the
+minister who was to perform the ceremony, and given him the message, but
+Michael little knew the ways of weddings. It was the first one he had ever
+attended, and he went straight to the point.
+
+"On account of the sudden and serious illness of the groom," he said, "it
+will be impossible for the ceremony to go on at this time. The bride's
+family ask that you will kindly excuse them from further intrusion or
+explanation this evening."
+
+With a slight inclination of his head to the breathless audience Michael
+passed swiftly down the aisle and out into the night, and the organist, by
+tremendous self-control, kept on playing softly until the excited people
+who had drifted usherless into the church got themselves out into their
+carriages once more.
+
+Michael walked out into the night, bareheaded still, his eyes lifted to the
+stars shining so far away above the city, and said softly, with wondering,
+reverent voice: "Oh, God! Oh, God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+Following hard upon the interrupted wedding came other events that not only
+helped to hush matters up, but gave the world a plausible reason why the
+ceremony did not come off as soon as the groom was convalescent from what
+was reported in the papers to be an attack of acute indigestion, easily
+accounted for by the round of banquets and entertainments which usually
+precede a society wedding.
+
+During that eventful night while Starr still lay like a crushed lily torn
+rudely from its stem, her mother, after a stormy scene with her husband, in
+which he made it plain to her just what kind of a man she was wanting her
+daughter to marry, and during which she saw the fall of her greatest social
+ambitions, was suddenly stricken with apoplexy.
+
+The papers next morning told the news as sympathetically as a paper can
+tell one's innermost secrets. It praised the wonderful ability of the woman
+who had so successfully completed all the unique arrangements for what had
+promised to be the greatest wedding of the season, if not of all seasons;
+and upon whose overtaxed strength, the last straw had been laid in the
+illness of the bridegroom. It stated that now of course the wedding would
+be put off indefinitely, as nothing could be thought of while the bride's
+mother lay in so critical a state.
+
+For a week there were daily bulletins of her condition published always in
+more and more remote corners of the paper, until the little ripple that had
+been made in the stream of life passed; and no further mention was made of
+the matter save occasionally when they sent for some famous specialist:
+when they took her to the shore to try what sea air might do; or when they
+brought her home again.
+
+But all the time the woman lay locked in rigid silence. Only her cold eyes
+followed whoever came into her room. She gave no sign of knowing what they
+said, or of caring who came near her. Her husband's earnest pleas, Starr's
+tears, drew from her no faintest expression that might have been even
+imagined from a fluttering eyelash. There was nothing but that stony stare,
+that almost unseeing gaze, that yet followed, followed wherever one would
+move. It was a living death.
+
+And when one day the release came and the eyes were closed forever from the
+scenes of this world, it was a sad relief to both husband and daughter.
+Starr and her father stole away to an old New England farm-house where Mr.
+Endicott's elderly maiden sister still lived in the old family homestead; a
+mild-eyed, low-voiced woman with plain gray frocks and soft white laces at
+wrists and neck and ruched about her sweet old face above the silver of her
+hair.
+
+Starr had not been there since she was a little child, and her sad heart
+found her aunt's home restful. She stayed there through the fall and until
+after the first of the year; while her father came and went as business
+dictated; and the Endicott home on Madison Avenue remained closed except
+for the caretakers.
+
+Meanwhile young Carter had discreetly escorted his mother to Europe, and
+was supposed by the papers to be going to return almost immediately. Not a
+breath of gossip, strange to say, stole forth. Everything seemed arranged
+to quiet any suspicion that might arise.
+
+Early in the fall he returned to town but Starr was still in New England.
+No one knew of the estrangement between them. Their immediate friends were
+away from town still, and everything seemed perfectly natural in the order
+of decency. Of course people could not be married at once when there had
+been a death in the family.
+
+No one but the two families knew of Carter's repeated attempts to be
+reconciled to Starr; of his feeble endeavor at explanation; of her
+continued refusal even to see him; and the decided letter she wrote him
+after he had written her the most abject apology he knew how to frame; nor
+of her father's interview with the young man wherein he was told some facts
+about himself more plainly than anyone, even in his babyhood, had ever
+dared to tell him. Mr. Endicott agreed to keep silence for Starr's sake,
+provided the young man would do nothing to create any gossip about the
+matter, until the intended wedding had been forgotten, and other events
+should have taken the minds of society, from their particular case. Carter,
+for his own sake, had not cared to have the story get abroad and had
+sullenly acceded to the command. He had not, however, thought it necessary
+to make himself entirely miserable while abroad; and there were those who
+more than once spoke his name in company with that of a young and dashing
+divorcée. Some even thought he returned to America sooner than he intended
+in order to travel on the same steamer that she was to take. However, those
+whispers had not as yet crossed the water; and even if they had, such
+things were too common to cause much comment.
+
+Then, one Monday morning, the papers were filled with horror over an
+unusually terrible automobile accident; in which a party of seven, of whom
+the young divorcée was one and Stuyvesant Carter was another, went over an
+embankment sixty feet in height, the car landing upside down on the rocks
+below, and killing every member of the party. The paper also stated that
+Mr. Theodore Brooks, intimate friend of Carter's, who was to have been best
+man at the wedding some months previous, which was postponed on account of
+the sudden illness and death of the bride's mother, was of the party.
+
+Thus ended the career of Stuyvesant Carter, and thus the world never knew
+exactly why Starr Endicott did not become Mrs. Carter.
+
+Michael, from the moment that he went forth from delivering his message in
+the church, saw no more of the Endicotts. He longed inexpressibly to call
+and enquire for Starr; to get some word of reconciliation from her father;
+to ask if there was not some little thing that he might be trusted to do
+for them; but he knew that his place was not there, and his company was not
+desired. Neither would he write, for even a note from him could but seem,
+to Starr, a reminder of the terrible things of which he had been witness,
+that is if anybody had ever told her it was he that brought her home.
+
+One solace alone he allowed himself. Night after night as he went home
+late he would walk far out of his way to pass the house and look up at her
+window; and always it comforted him a little to see the dim radiance of her
+soft night light; behind the draperies of those windows, somewhere, safe,
+she lay asleep, the dear little white-faced girl that he had been permitted
+to carry to her home and safety, when she had almost reached the brink of
+destruction.
+
+About a week after the fateful wedding day Michael received a brief note
+from Starr.
+
+"My dear Mr. Endicott:
+
+"I wish to thank you for your trouble in bringing me home last week. I
+cannot understand how you came to be there at that time. Also I am deeply
+grateful for your kindness in making the announcement at the church. Very
+sincerely, S.D.E."
+
+Michael felt the covert question in that phrase: "I cannot understand how
+you came to be there at that time." She thought, perhaps, that to carry his
+point and stop the marriage he had had a hand in that miserable business!
+Well, let her think it. It was not his place to explain, and really of
+course it could make little difference to her what she believed about him.
+As well to let it rest. He belonged out of her world, and never would he
+try to force his way into it.
+
+And so with the whiteness of his face still lingering from the hard days of
+tension, Michael went on, straining every nerve in his work; keeping the
+alley room open nightly even during hot weather, and in constant touch with
+the farm which was now fairly on its feet and almost beginning to earn its
+own living; though the contributions still kept coming to him quietly, here
+and there, and helped in the many new plans that grew out of the many new
+necessities.
+
+The carpenter had built and built, until there were pretty little bungalows
+of one and two and three rooms dotted all about the farm to be rented at a
+low price to the workers. It had come to be a little community by itself,
+spoken of as "Old Orchard Farms," and well respected in the neighborhood,
+for in truth the motley company that Michael and Sam gathered there had
+done far better in the way of law-and-orderliness than either had hoped.
+They seemed to have a pride that nothing that could hurt "the boss's"
+reputation as a landowner should be laid to their charge. If by chance
+there came into their midst any sordid being who could not see matters in
+that light the rest promptly taught him better, or else put him out.
+
+And now the whole front yard was aflame with brilliant flowers in their
+season. The orchard had been pruned and trimmed and grafted, and in the
+spring presented a foreground of wonderful pink and white splendor; and at
+all seasons of the year the grassy drive wound its way up to the old house,
+through a vista of branches, green, or brown.
+
+It had long been in Michael's heart to build over the old house--for what
+he did not know. Certainly he had no hope of ever using it himself except
+as a transitory dwelling; yet it pleased his fancy to have it as he dreamed
+it out. Perhaps some day it might be needed for some supreme reason,
+and now was the time to get it ready. So one day he took a great and
+simple-hearted architect down to the place to stay over night and get an
+idea of the surroundings; and a few weeks later he was in possession of
+a plan that showed how the old house could be made into a beautiful new
+house, and yet keep all the original outlines. The carpenter, pleased with
+the prospect of doing something really fine, had undertaken the work and it
+was going forward rapidly.
+
+The main walls were to be built around with stone, old stone bought from
+the ruins of a desolated barn of forgotten years, stone that was rusty and
+golden and green in lovely mellow tones; stone that was gray with age and
+mossy in place; now and then a stone that was dead black to give strength
+to the coloring of the whole. There were to be windows, everywhere, wide,
+low windows, that would let the sunlight in; and windows that nestled in
+the sloping, rambling roofs that were to be stained green like the moss
+that would grow on them some day. There was to be a piazza across the
+entire front with rough stone pillars, and a stone paved floor up to which
+the orchard grass would grow in a gentle terrace. Even now Sam and his
+helpers were at work starting rose vines of all varieties, to train about
+the trellises and twine about the pillars. Sam had elected that it should
+be called "Rose Cottage." Who would have ever suspected Sam of having any
+poetry in his nature?
+
+The great stone fireplace with its ancient crane and place to sit inside
+was to be retained, and built about with more stone, and the partitions
+between the original sitting-room and dining-room and hall were to be torn
+down, to make one splendid living-room of which the old fireplace should be
+the centre, with a great window at one side looking toward the sea, and a
+deep seat with book cases in the corner. Heavy beams were somehow to be put
+in the ceiling to support it, and fine wood used in the wainscoting and
+panelling, with rough soft-toned plaster between and above. The floors were
+to be smooth, wide boards of hard wood well fitted.
+
+A little gable was to be added on the morning-side of the house for a
+dining-room, all windows, with a view of the sea on one side and the river
+on the other. Upstairs there would be four bedrooms and a bath-room, all
+according to the plan to be white wainscoting half-way up and delicately
+vined or tinted papers above.
+
+Michael took great pleasure in going down to look at the house, and
+watching the progress that was made with it, as indeed the whole colony
+did. They called it "The Boss's Cottage," and when they laid off work at
+night always took a trip to see what had been done during the day, men,
+women and children. It was a sort of sacred pilgrimage, wherein they saw
+their own highest dreams coming true for the man they loved because he had
+helped them to a future of possibilities. Not a man of them but wistfully
+wondered if he would ever get to the place where he could build him a house
+like that, and resolved secretly to try for it; and always the work went
+better the next day for the visit to the shrine.
+
+But after all, Michael would turn from his house with an empty ache in his
+heart. What was it for? Not for him. It was not likely he would ever spend
+happy hours there. He was not like other men. He must take his happiness in
+making others happy.
+
+But one day a new thought came to him, as he watched the laborers working
+out the plan, and bringing it ever nearer and nearer to the perfect whole.
+A great desire came to him to have Starr see it some day, to know what she
+would think about it, and if she would like it. The thought occurred to him
+that perhaps, some time, in the changing of the world, she might chance
+near that way, and he have opportunity to show her the house that he had
+built--for her! Not that he would ever tell her that last. She must never
+know of course that she was the only one in all the world he could ever
+care for. That would seem a great presumption in her eyes. He must keep
+that to himself. But there would be no harm in showing her the house, and
+he would make it now as beautiful as if she were to occupy it. He would
+take his joy in making all things fair, with the hope that she might one
+day see and approve it.
+
+So, as the work drew near its completion he watched it more and more
+carefully, matching tints in rooms, and always bringing down some new idea,
+or finding some particular bit of furniture that would some day fit into
+a certain niche. In that way he cheated the lonely ache in his heart, and
+made believe he was happy.
+
+And another winter drew its white mantle about its shoulders and prepared
+to face the blast.
+
+It bade fair to be a bitter winter for the poor, for everything was high,
+and unskilled labor was poorly paid. Sickness and death were abroad, and
+lurked in the milk supply, the food supply, the unsanitary tenements about
+the alley; which, because it had not been so bad as some other districts
+had been left uncondemned. Yet it was bad enough, and Michael's hands were
+full to keep his people alive, and try to keep some of them from sinning.
+For always where there is misery, there is the more sinning.
+
+Old Sal sat on her doorstep shivering with her tattered shawl about her
+shoulders, or when it grew too cold peered from her little muslin curtained
+window behind the geranium, to see the dirty white hearse with its
+pink-winged angel atop, pass slowly in and out with some little fragment
+of humanity; and knew that one day her turn would come to leave it all and
+go--! Then she turned back to her little room which had become the only
+heaven she knew, and solaced herself with the contents of a black bottle!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+During the years of his work in the alley Michael had become known more
+and more among workers for the poor, and he found strength in their
+brotherhood, though he kept mainly to his own little corner, and had little
+time to go out into other fields. But he had formed some very pleasant
+distant friendships among workers, and had met prominent men who were
+interested in reforms of all sorts.
+
+He was hurrying back to his boarding place one evening late in January with
+his mind full of the old problem of how to reach the mass of humanity and
+help them to live in decency so that they might stand some little chance of
+being good as well as being alive.
+
+At the crossing of another avenue he met a man whose eloquence as a public
+speaker was only equalled by his indefatigable tirelessness as a worker
+among men.
+
+"Good evening, Endicott," he said cordially, halting in his rapid walk, "I
+wonder if you're not the very man I want? Will you do me a favor? I'm in
+great straits and no time to hunt up anybody."
+
+"Anything I can do, Doctor, I am at your service," said Michael.
+
+"Good! Thank you!" said the great man. "Are you free this evening for an
+hour?"
+
+"I can be," said Michael smiling. The other man's hearty greeting and warm
+"thank you" cheered his lonely heart.
+
+"Well, then you'll take my place at Madison Square Garden to-night, won't
+you? I've just had a telegram that my mother is very ill, perhaps dying,
+and I feel that I must go at once. I'm on my way to the station now. I
+thought Patton would be at his rooms perhaps and he might help me out, but
+they tell me he is out of town on a lecture tour."
+
+"Take your place?" said Michael aghast. "That I'm sure I could never do,
+Doctor. What were you going to do?"
+
+"Why, there's a mass meeting at Madison Square Garden. We're trying to get
+more playgrounds and roof gardens for poor children, you know. I was to
+speak about the tenement district, give people a general idea of what
+the need is, you know. I'm sure you're well acquainted with the subject.
+They're expecting some big men there who can be big givers if they're
+touched in the right way. You're very good to help me out. You'll excuse
+me if I hurry on, it's almost train time. I want to catch the six o'clock
+express West--"
+
+"But, Doctor," said Michael in dismay, striding along by his side down the
+street, "I really couldn't do that. I'm not a public speaker, you know--I
+never addressed a big audience in my life! Isn't there some one else I
+could get for you?"
+
+It was odd that while he was saying it the vision of the church filled with
+the fashionable world, waiting for a wedding which did not materialize,
+came to his thoughts.
+
+"Oh, that doesn't make the slightest difference in the world!" said the
+worried man. "You know the subject from _a_ to _z_, and I don't know
+another available soul to-night who does. Just tell them what you know, you
+needn't talk long; it'll be all right anyway. Just smile your smile and
+they'll give all right. Good night, and thank you from my heart! I must
+take this cab," and he hailed a passing cab and sprang inside, calling out
+above the city's din, "Eight o'clock the meeting is. Don't worry! You'll
+come out all right. It'll be good practice for your business."
+
+Michael stood still in the middle of the crowded pavement and looked after
+the departing cab in dismay. If ever in all his life had he come to a spot
+where he felt so utterly inadequate to fill a situation. Frantically he
+tried as he started down the street again, to think of some one else to
+ask. There seemed to be no one at all who was used to speaking that knew
+the subject. The few who knew were either out of town or at a great
+distance. He did not know how to reach them in time. Besides, there was
+something about Michael that just would not let him shirk a situation no
+matter how trying it was to him. It was one of the first principles he had
+been taught with football, and before he reached his boarding place, his
+chin was up, and his lips firmly set. Anyone who knew him well would have
+felt sure Michael was going into a scrimmage and expected the fighting to
+be hard.
+
+It was Will French who dug it out of him after dinner, and laughed and
+slapped him gleefully on the shoulder. Will was engaged to Hester now and
+he was outrageously happy.
+
+"Good work, old fellow! You've got your chance, now give it to 'em! I don't
+know anybody can do it better. I'd like to bring a millionaire or two to
+hear you. You've been there, now tell 'em! Don't frown like that, old
+fellow, I tell you you've got the chance of your life. Why don't you tell
+'em about the tenement in the alley?"
+
+Michael's face cleared.
+
+"I hadn't thought of it, Will. Do you think I could? It isn't exactly on
+the subject. I understood him I was to speak of the tenement in relation to
+the Playground."
+
+"The very thing," said Will. "Didn't he tell you to say what you knew?
+Well, give it to 'em straight, and you'll see those rich old fellows open
+their eyes. Some of 'em own some of those old rickety shacks, and probably
+don't know what they own. Tell 'em. Perhaps the old man who owns our
+tenement will be there! Who knows?"
+
+"By the way," said Michael, his face all alight, "did I tell you that
+Milborn told me the other day that they think they're on track of the real
+owner of our tenement? The agent let out something the last time they
+talked with him and they think they may discover who he is, though he's
+hidden himself well behind agents for years. If we can find out who he is
+we may be able to help him understand what great need there is for him to
+make a few changes--"
+
+"Yes, a few changes!" sneered Will. "Tear down the whole rotten death-trap
+and build a new one with light and air and a chance for human beings to
+live! Give it to 'em, old man! He may be there to-night."
+
+"I believe I will," said Michael thoughtfully, the look of winning
+beginning to dawn on his speaking face; and he went up to his room and
+locked his door.
+
+When he came out again, Will who was waiting to accompany him to the
+meeting saw in his eyes the look of the dreamer, the man who sees into the
+future and prophesies. He knew that Michael would not fail in his speech
+that night. He gave a knowing look to Hester as she came out to go with
+them and Hester understood. They walked behind him quietly for the most
+part, or speaking in low tones. They felt the pride and the anxiety of the
+moment as much as if they had been going to make the speech themselves. The
+angel in the man had dominated them also.
+
+Now it happened that Starr had come down with her father for a week's
+shopping the last time he ran up to his sister's and on this particular
+evening she had claimed her father's society.
+
+"Can't you stay at home, Daddy dear?" she asked wistfully. "I don't want to
+go to Aunt Frances' 'quiet little evening' one bit. I told her you needed
+me to-night as we've only a day or two more left before I go back."
+
+Aunt Frances was Starr's mother's sister, and as the servants of the two
+families agreed mutually, "Just like her, only more so." Starr had never
+been quite happy in her company.
+
+"Come with me for a little while, daughter. I'm sorry I can't stay at home
+all the evening, but I rather promised I'd drop into a charitable meeting
+at Madison Square for a few minutes this evening. They're counting on my
+name, I believe. We won't need to stay long, and if you're with, me it will
+be easier to get away."
+
+"Agreed!" said Starr eagerly, and got herself ready in a twinkling. And so
+it came about that as the roll of martial music poured forth from the fine
+instruments secured for the occasion, and the leaders and speakers of the
+evening, together with the presidents of this Society, and that Army, or
+Settlement, or Organization for the Belief and Benefit of the Poor, filed
+on to the great platform, that Starr and her father occupied prominent
+seats in the vast audience, and joined in the enthusiasm that spread like
+a wave before the great American Flag that burst out in brilliant electric
+lights of red and white and blue, a signal that the hour and the moment was
+come.
+
+Michael came in with the others, as calmly as though he had spent his life
+preparing for the public platform. There was fire in his eyes, the fire of
+passion for the people of the slums who were his kin. He looked over the
+audience with a throb of joy to think he had so mighty an opportunity. His
+pulses were not stirred, because he had no consciousness of self in this
+whole performance. His subject was to live before the people, he himself
+was nothing at all. He had no fear but he could tell them, if that was all
+they wanted. Burning sentences hot with the blood of souls had been pouring
+through his mind ever since he had decided to talk of his people. He was
+only in a hurry to begin lest they would not give him time to tell all he
+knew! All he knew! Could it ever be told? It was endless as eternity.
+
+With a strange stirring of her heart Starr recognized him. She felt the
+color stealing into her face. She thought her father must notice it, and
+cast a furtive glance at him, but he was deep in conversation about some
+banking business, so she sat and watched Michael during the opening
+exercises and wondered how he came to be there and what was his office
+in this thing. Did lawyers get paid for doing something to help along
+charitable institutions? She supposed so. He was probably given a seat on
+the platform for his pains. Yet she could not help thinking how fine he
+looked sitting there in the centre, the place of honor it would seem.
+How came he there? He was taller than all the others, whether sitting or
+standing, and his fine form and bearing made him exceedingly noticeable.
+Starr could hear women about her whispering to their escorts: "Who is he?"
+and her heart gave strange little throbs to think that she knew. It seemed
+odd to her that she should be taken back by the sight of him now through
+all the years to that morning in Florida when she had kissed him in the
+chapel. Somehow there seemed something sweet and tender in the memory and
+she dwelt upon it, while she watched him looking calmly over the audience,
+rising and moving to let another pass him, bowing and smiling to a noted
+judge who leaned over to grasp his hand. Did young lawyers like that get to
+know noted judges? And wherever did he get his grace? There was rhythm and
+beauty in his every motion. Starr had never had such a splendid opportunity
+to look at him before, for in all that sea of faces she knew hers would be
+lost to him, and she might watch him at her will.
+
+"Daddy, did you know that Michael was up there?" she asked after a while
+when her father's friend went back to his seat.
+
+"Michael? No, where? On the platform? I wonder what in the world he is
+doing there? He must be mixed up in this thing somehow, I understand he's
+stuck at his mission work. I tried to stop him several years ago. Told him
+it would ruin his prospects, but he was too stubborn to give up. So he's
+here!"
+
+And Mr. Endicott searched out Michael and studied the beautiful face
+keenly, looking in vain for any marks of degradation or fast living. The
+head was lifted with its conquering look; the eyes shone forth like jewels.
+Michael was a man, a son--to be proud of, he told himself, and breathed a
+heavy sigh. That was one time when his stubbornness had not conquered, and
+he found himself glad in spite of himself that it had not.
+
+The opening exercises were mere preliminary speeches and resolutions, mixed
+with music, and interspersed by the introduction of the mayor of the
+city and one or two other notables who said a few apathetic words of
+commendation for the work in hand and retired on their laurels. "I
+understand this Dr. Glidden who is to speak is quite an eloquent fellow,"
+said Starr's father as the President got up to introduce the speaker of the
+evening whom all had come to hear. "The man who was just talking with me
+says he is really worth hearing. If he grows tiresome we will slip out. I
+wonder which one he is? He must be that man with the iron-gray hair over
+there."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to go out," said Starr. "I like it. I never was in a
+great meeting like this. I like to hear them cheer."
+
+Her cheeks were rosy, for in her heart she was finding out that she had a
+great longing to stay there and watch Michael a little longer.
+
+"I am sorry to have to tell you that our friend and advertised speaker
+for the evening was called away by the sudden and serious illness of
+his mother, and left for the West on the six o'clock express," said the
+chairman in his inadequate little voice that seemed always straining beyond
+its height and never accomplishing anything in the way of being heard.
+
+A sigh of disappointment swept over the part of the audience near enough to
+the platform to hear, and some men reached for their hats.
+
+"Well, now that's a pity," whispered Endicott. "I guess we better go before
+they slip in any dry old substitutes. I've been seen here, that's enough."
+
+But Starr laid a detaining hand on her father's arm.
+
+"Wait a little, Daddy," she said softly.
+
+"But he has sent a substitute," went on the chairman, "a man whom he says
+is a hundred per cent. better able to talk on the subject than himself. He
+spoke to me from the station 'phone just before he left and told me that he
+felt that you would all agree he had done well to go when you had heard the
+man whom he has sent in his place. I have the pleasure to introduce to you
+Mr. Michael Endicott who will speak to you this evening on the "Needs of
+the Tenement Dwellers"--Mr. Endicott."
+
+Amid the silence that ensued after the feebly-polite applause Michael rose.
+For just an instant he stood, looking over the audience and a strange
+subtle thrill ran over the vast assemblage.
+
+Then Michael, insensibly measuring the spacious hall, flung his clear,
+beautiful voice out into it, and reached the uttermost bounds of the room.
+
+"Did you know that there are in this city now seventy-one thousand eight
+hundred and seventy-seven totally dark rooms; some of them connected with
+an air-shaft twenty-eight inches wide and seventy feet deep; many of them
+absolutely without access to even a dark shaft; and that these rooms are
+the only place in the whole wide, beautiful world for thousands of little
+children, unless they stay in the street?"
+
+The sentence shot through the audience like a great deliberate bolt of
+lightning that crashed through the hearts of the hearers and tore away
+every vestige of their complacency. The people sat up and took notice.
+Starr thrilled and trembled, she knew not why.
+
+"There is a tenement with rooms like this, a 'dumb-bell' tenement, it is
+called, in the alley where, for aught I know, I was born--"
+
+"Oh!" The sound swept over the listeners in a great wave like a sob of
+protest. Men and women raised their opera glasses and looked at the speaker
+again. They asked one another: "Who is he?" and settled quiet to hear what
+more he had to say.
+
+Then Michael went on to tell of three dark little rooms in "his" tenement
+where a family of eight, accustomed to better things, had been forced
+by circumstances to make their home; and where in the dark the germs
+of tuberculosis had been silently growing, until the whole family were
+infected. He spoke of a little ten-year-old girl, living in one of these
+little dark rooms, pushed down on the street by a playmate, an accident
+that would have been thought nothing of in a healthy child, but in this
+little one it produced tubercular meningitis and after two days of agony
+the child died. He told of a delicate girl, who with her brother were the
+sole wage earners of the family, working all day, and sewing far into the
+night to make clothes for the little brothers and sisters, who had fallen
+prey to the white plague.
+
+He told instance after instance of sickness and death all resulting from
+the terrible conditions in this one tenement, until a delicate, refined
+looking woman down in the audience who had dropped in with her husband for
+a few minutes on the way to some other gathering, drew her soft mantle
+about her shoulders with a shiver and whispered: "Really, Charles, it can't
+be healthy to have such a terrible state of things in the city where we
+live. I should think germs would get out and float around to us. Something
+ought to be done to clean such low creatures out of a decent community. Do
+let's go now. I don't feel as if I could listen to another word. I shan't
+be able to enjoy the reception."
+
+But the husband sat frowning and listening to the end of the speech,
+vouchsafing to her whisper only the single growl:
+
+"Don't be a fool, Selina!"
+
+On and on Michael went, literally taking his audience with him, through
+room after room of "his" tenement, showing them horrors they had never
+dreamed; giving them now and again a glimmer of light when he told of a
+curtained window with fifteen minutes of sun every morning, where a little
+cripple sat to watch for her sunbeam, and push her pot of geraniums along
+the sill that it might have the entire benefit of its brief shining. He put
+the audience into peals of laughter over the wit of some poor creatures in
+certain trying situations, showing that a sense of humor is not lacking in
+"the other half"; and then set them weeping over a little baby's funeral.
+
+He told them forcibly how hard the workers were trying to clean out and
+improve this terrible state of things. How cruelly slow the owner of this
+particular tenement was even to cut windows into dark air shafts; how so
+far it had been impossible to discover the name of the true owner of the
+building, because he had for years successfully hidden behind agents who
+held the building in trust.
+
+The speech closed in a mighty appeal to the people of New York to rise up
+in a mass and wipe out this curse of the tenements, and build in their
+places light, airy, clean, wholesome dwellings, where people might live and
+work and learn the lessons of life aright, and where sin could find no dark
+hole in which to hatch her loathsome offspring.
+
+As Michael sat down amid a burst of applause such as is given to few
+speakers, another man stepped to the front of the platform; and the cheers
+of commendation were hushed somewhat, only to swell and break forth again;
+for this man was one of the city's great minds, and always welcome on any
+platform. He had been asked to make the final appeal for funds for the
+playgrounds. It had been considered a great stroke of luck on the part of
+the committee to secure him.
+
+"My friends," said he when the hush came at last and he could be heard, "I
+appreciate your feelings. I would like to spend the remainder of the night
+in applauding the man who has just finished speaking."
+
+The clamor showed signs of breaking forth again:
+
+"This man has spoken well because he has spoken from his heart. And he has
+told us that he knows whereof he speaks, for he has lived in those tenement
+rooms himself, one of the little children like those for whom he pleads. I
+am told that he has given almost every evening for four years out of a busy
+life which is just opening into great promise, to help these people of his.
+I am reminded as I have been listening to him of Lanier's wonderful poem,
+'The Marshes of Glynn.' Do you recall it?
+
+  "'Ye spread and span like the catholic man who hath mightily won
+  God out of knowledge, and good out of infinite pain,
+  And sight out of blindness, and purity out of a stain.'
+
+"Let us get to work at once and do our duty. I see you do not need urging.
+My friends, if such a man as this, a prince among men, can come out of the
+slums, then the slums are surely worth redeeming."
+
+The audience thundered and clamored and thundered again; women sobbed
+openly, while the ushers hurried about collecting the eager offerings of
+the people, for Michael had won the day and everybody was ready to give.
+It sort of helped to get the burden of such a state of things off their
+consciences.
+
+Starr had sat through the whole speech with glowing cheeks and lashes wet.
+Her heart throbbed with wonder and a kind of personal pride in Michael.
+Somehow all the years that had passed between seemed to have dropped away
+and she saw before her the boy who had told her of the Florida sunset, and
+filled her with childish admiration over his beautiful thoughts. His story
+appealed to her. The lives of the little ones about whom he had been
+telling were like his poor neglected existence before her father took him
+up; the little lonely life that had been freely offered to save her own.
+
+She forgot now all that had passed between, her anger at his not coming to
+ride; and after her return from abroad, not coming to call; nor accepting
+her invitations; her rage at his interference in her affairs. Her
+persistence in her own folly seemed now unspeakable. She was ashamed of
+herself. The tears were streaming down her cheeks, but of this she was
+quite unaware.
+
+When the speeches were over and the uproar of applause had somewhat
+subsided, Starr turned to her father her face aglow, her lashes still
+dewy with tears. Her father had been silent and absorbed. His face was
+inscrutable now. He had a way of masking his emotions even to those who
+knew him best.
+
+"Daddy, dear," whispered Starr, "couldn't we buy that tenement and build it
+over? I should so love to give those little children happy homes."
+
+Endicott turned and looked at his treasured child, her lovely face all
+eagerness now. She had infinite faith in her father's ability to purchase
+anything she wanted. The father himself had been deeply stirred. He looked
+at her searchingly at first; then yearningly, tenderly, but his voice was
+almost gruff as he said:
+
+"H'm! I'll see about it!"
+
+"Couldn't you let Michael know now, daddy? I think it would be such a help
+to him to know that his speech has done some good." The voice was very
+sweet and appealing. "Couldn't you send him word by one of the ushers?"
+
+"H'm! I suppose I could." Endicott took out his fountain pen and a business
+card, and began to write.
+
+"You don't suppose, daddy, that the owner will object to selling? There
+won't be any trouble about it that way, will there?"
+
+"No, I don't think there'll be any trouble."
+
+Endicott slipped the card into an envelope he found in his pocket and
+calling an usher asked him to take it to the platform to Michael. What he
+had written was this:
+
+"I suppose you have been talking about my property. Pull the tenement down
+if you like and build a model one. I'll foot the bills. D.E."
+
+When Michael, surprised at receiving a communication on the platform, tore
+the envelope open and read, his face fairly blazed with glory. Starr was
+watching him, and her heart gave a queer little throb of pleasure at
+the light in his eyes. The next instant he was on his feet, and with a
+whispered word to the chairman, came to the front of the platform. His
+raised hand brought instant silence.
+
+"I have good news. May I share it with you? The owner of that tenement is
+in this house, and has sent me word that he will tear it down and build a
+model one in its place!"
+
+The ring in Michael's voice, and the light on his face was equivalent to a
+dozen votes of thanks. The audience rose to its feet and cheered:
+
+"Daddy! Oh, daddy! Are you the owner?" There was astonishment, reproof,
+excuse, and forgiveness all mingled in Starr's voice.
+
+"Come Starr," said her father abruptly, "we'd better go home. This is a hot
+noisy place and I'm tired."
+
+"Daddy dear! Of course you didn't know how things were!" said Starr
+sweetly. "You didn't, did you, daddy?"
+
+"No, I didn't know," said Endicott evasively, "that Michael has a great
+gift of gab! Would you like to stop and have an ice somewhere, daughter?"
+
+"No, daddy, I'd rather go home and plan how to make over that tenement. I
+don't believe I'd enjoy an ice after what I've heard to-night. Why is it
+some people have so much more than others to start with?"
+
+"H'm! Deep question, child, better not trouble your brains with it," and
+Starr saw that her father, though deeply moved, did not wish to discuss the
+matter.
+
+The next day Michael called at Endicott's office but did not find him
+in, and wrote a letter out of the overwhelming joy of his heart, asking
+permission to call and thank his benefactor and talk over plans. The
+following day he received the curt reply:
+
+"Son:--Make your plans to suit yourself. Don't spare expense within reason.
+No thanks needed. I did it for Starr. You made a good speech."
+
+Michael choked down his disappointment over this rebuff, and tried to take
+all the joy of it. He was not forgiven yet. He might not enter the sacred
+precincts of intercourse again; but he was beloved. He could not help
+feeling that, because of that "Son" with which the communication began. And
+the grudging praise his speech received was more to Michael than all the
+adulation that people had been showering upon him since the night of the
+mass meeting. But Starr! Starr knew about it. He did it for Starr! She had
+wanted it! She had perhaps been there! She must have been there, or how
+else would she have known? The thought thrilled him, and thrilled him
+anew! Oh, if he might have seen her before him! But then perhaps he would
+not have been able to tell his story, and so it was just as well. But
+Starr was interested in his work, his plans! What a wonderful thing to
+have her work with him even in this indirect way. Oh, if some day! If--!
+
+But right here Michael shut down his thoughts and went to work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+Late in January Michael was taking his nightly walk homeward by way of the
+Endicott home. He was convinced that Starr was still away from home, for he
+had seen no lights now for several weeks in the room that he knew was her
+own, but there was always the chance that she might have returned.
+
+He was nearing the house when he saw from the opposite direction a man turn
+the corner and with halting gait come slowly toward the house and pause
+before the steps uncertainly. Something familiar in the man's attitude
+caused Michael to hasten his steps, and coming closer he found that it was
+Mr. Endicott himself, and that he stood looking up the steps of his home as
+though they had been a difficult hill which he must climb.
+
+Michael stopped beside him, saying good evening, the thrill of his voice
+conveying his own joy in the meeting in addition to a common greeting.
+
+"Is that you, Son?" asked the older man swaying slightly toward him. "I'm
+glad you came. I feel strangely dizzy. I wish you'd help me in."
+
+Michael's arm was about the other's shoulders at once and his ready
+strength almost lifted his benefactor up the steps. His steady hand with
+the key made short work of the night latch, and without waiting to call a
+servant he helped Mr. Endicott up to his room and to his bed.
+
+The man sank back wearily with a sigh and closed his eyes, then suddenly
+roused himself.
+
+"Thank you, Son; and will you send a message to Starr that I am not able to
+come on to-night as I promised? Tell her I'll likely be all right to-morrow
+and will try to come then. You'll find the address at the head of the
+telephone list in the hall there. I guess you'll have to 'phone for the
+doctor. I don't seem to feel like myself. There must be something the
+matter. I think I've taken a heavy cold."
+
+Michael hurried to the 'phone and called up the physician begging him to
+come at once, for he could see that Mr. Endicott was very ill. His voice
+trembled as he gave the message to the Western Union over the 'phone. It
+seemed almost like talking to Starr, though he sent the telegram in her
+father's name.
+
+The message sent, he hurried back to the sick man, who seemed to have
+fallen in a sort of stupor. His face was flushed and hot, the veins in his
+temples and neck were throbbing rapidly. In all his healthy life Michael
+had seen little of illness, but he recognized it now and knew it must be
+a violent attack. If only he knew something to do until the doctor should
+arrive!
+
+Hot water used to be the universal remedy for all diseases at college. The
+matron always had some one bring hot water when anyone was ill. Michael
+went downstairs to find a servant, but they must all be asleep, for he had
+been unusually late in leaving the alley that night.
+
+However, he found that the bath-room would supply plenty of hot water, so
+he set to work to undress his patient, wrap him in a blanket and soak his
+feet in hot water. But the patient showed signs of faintness, and was
+unable to sit up. A footbath under such conditions was difficult to
+administer. The unaccustomed nurse got his patient into bed again with
+arduous labor, and was just wondering what to do next when the doctor
+arrived.
+
+Michael watched the grave face of the old doctor as he examined the sick
+man, and knew that his intuitions had been right. Mr. Endicott was very
+seriously ill. The doctor examined his patient with deliberation, his face
+growing more and more serious. At last he stepped out of the room and
+motioned Michael to follow him.
+
+"Are you a relative, young man?" he asked looking at Michael keenly.
+
+"No, only one who is very much indebted to him."
+
+"Well, it's lucky for him if you feel that indebtedness now. Do you know
+what is the matter with him?"
+
+"No," said Michael. "He looks pretty sick to me. What is it?"
+
+"Smallpox!" said the doctor laconically, "and a tough case at that." Then
+he looked keenly at the fine specimen of manhood before him, noting with
+alert eye that there had been no blanching of panic in the beautiful face,
+no slightest movement as if to get out of the room. The young man was not a
+coward, anyway.
+
+"How long have you been with him?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Since I telephoned you," said Michael, "I happened to be passing the house
+and saw him trying to get up the steps alone. He was dizzy, he said, and
+seemed glad to have me come to his help."
+
+"Have you ever been vaccinated?"
+
+"No," said Michael indifferently.
+
+"The wisest thing for you to do would be to get out of the room at once and
+let me vaccinate you. I'll try to send a nurse to look after him as soon as
+possible. Where are the family? Not at home? And the servants will probably
+scatter as soon as they learn what's the matter. A pity he hadn't been
+taken to the hospital, but it's hardly safe to move him now. The fact is he
+is a very sick man, and there's only one chance in a hundred of saving him.
+You've run some big risks, taking care of him this way--"
+
+"Any bigger than you are running, doctor?" Michael smiled gravely.
+
+"H'm! Well, it's my business, and I don't suppose it is yours. There are
+people who are paid for those things. Come get out of this room or I won't
+answer for the consequences."
+
+"The consequences will have to answer for themselves, doctor. I'm going to
+stay here till somebody better comes to nurse him."
+
+Michael's eyes did not flinch as he said this.
+
+"Suppose you take the disease?"
+
+Michael smiled, one of his brilliant smiles that you could almost hear it
+was so bright.
+
+"Why, then I will," said Michael, "but I'll stay well long enough to take
+care of him until the nurse comes anyway."
+
+"You might die!"
+
+"Of course." In a tone with not a ruffle in the calm purpose.
+
+"Well, it's my duty to tell you that you'd probably be throwing your life
+away, for there's only a chance that he won't die."
+
+"Not throwing it away if I made him suffer a little less. And you said
+there was a chance. If I didn't stay he might miss that chance, mightn't
+he?"
+
+"Probably."
+
+"Can I do anything to help or ease him?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then I stay. I should stay anyway until some one came. I couldn't leave
+him so."
+
+"Very well, then. I'm proud to know a man like you. There's plenty to be
+done. Let's get to work."
+
+The hour that followed was filled with instructions and labor. Michael had
+no time to think what would become of his work, or anything. He only knew
+that this was the present duty and he went forward in it step by step.
+Before the doctor left he vaccinated Michael, and gave him careful
+directions how to take all necessary precautions for his own safety; but
+he knew from the lofty look in the young man's face, that these were mere
+secondary considerations with him. If the need came for the sake of the
+patient, all precautions would be flung aside as not mattering one whit.
+
+The doctor roused the servants and told them what had happened, and tried
+to persuade them to stay quietly in their places, and he would see that
+they ran no risks if they obeyed his directions. But to a man and a woman
+they were panic stricken; gathering their effects, they, like the Arabs
+of old, folded their tents and silently stole away in the night. Before
+morning dawned Michael and his patient were in sole possession of the
+house.
+
+Early in the morning there came a call from the doctor. He had not been
+able to secure the nurse he hoped to get. Could Michael hold the fort a
+few hours longer? He would relieve him sooner if possible, but experienced
+nurses for contagious cases were hard to get just now. There was a great
+deal of sickness. He might be able to get one this morning but it was
+doubtful. He had telephoned everywhere.
+
+Of course Michael would hold the fort.
+
+The doctor gave explicit directions, asked a number of questions, and
+promised to call as soon as possible.
+
+Michael, alone in the great silence that the occasional babble of a
+delirious person emphasizes in an otherwise empty house, began to think of
+things that must be done. Fortunately there was a telephone in the room.
+He would not have to leave his patient alone. He called up Will French and
+told him in a few words what had happened; laughed pleasantly at Will's
+fears for him; asked him to look after the alley work and to attend to one
+or two little matters connected with his office work which could not be put
+off. Then he called up Sam at the farm, for Michael had long ago found it
+necessary to have a telephone put in at Old Orchard.
+
+The sound of Sam's voice cheered his heart, when, after Michael's brief
+simple explanation of his present position as trained nurse for the head
+of the house of Endicott who lay sick of smallpox, Sam responded with a
+dismayed "Fer de lub o' Mike!"
+
+When Michael had finished all his directions to Sam, and received his
+partner's promise to do everything just as Michael would have done it, Sam
+broke out with:
+
+"Say, does dat ike know what he's takin' off'n you?"
+
+"Who? Mr. Endicott? No, Sam, he doesn't know anything. He's delirious."
+
+"Ummm!" grunted Sam deeply troubled. "Well, he better fin' out wen he gets
+hisself agin er there'll be sompin' comin' to him."
+
+"He's done a great deal for me, Sam."
+
+"Ummm! Well, you're gettin' it back on him sure thing now, all right. Say,
+you t' care o' yer'se'f, Mikky! We-all can't do nothin' w'th'ut yer. You
+lemme know every day how you be."
+
+"Sure Sam!" responded Michael deeply touched by the choking sound of Sam's
+voice. "Don't you worry. I'm sound as a nut. Nothing'll happen to me. The
+doctor vaccinated me, and I'll not catch it. You look after things for me
+and I'll be on deck again some day all the better for the rest."
+
+Michael sat back in the chair after hanging up the receiver, his eyes
+glistening with moisture. To think the day had come when Sam should care
+like that! It was a miracle.
+
+Michael went back again to the bed to look after his patient, and after he
+had done everything that the doctor had said, he decided to reconnoitre for
+some breakfast. There must be something in the house to eat even if the
+servants had all departed, and he ought to eat so that his strength should
+be equal to his task.
+
+It was late in the morning, nearly half-past ten. The young man hurried
+downstairs and began to ransack the pantry. He did not want to be long away
+from the upper room. Once, as he was stooping to search the refrigerator
+for butter and milk he paused in his work and thought he heard a sound
+at the front door, but then all seemed still, and he hurriedly put a few
+things on a tray and carried them upstairs. He might not be able to come
+down again for several hours. But when he reached the top of the stairs he
+heard a voice, not his patient's, but a woman's voice, sweet and clear and
+troubled:
+
+"Daddy! Oh, daddy dear! Why don't you speak to your little girl? What is
+the matter? Can't you understand me? Your face and your poor hands are so
+hot, they burn me. Daddy, daddy dear!"
+
+It was Starr's voice and Michael's heart stood still with the thrill of it,
+and the instant horror of it. Starr was in there in the room of death with
+her father. She was exposed to the terrible contagion; she, the beautiful,
+frail treasure of his heart!
+
+He set the tray down quickly on the hall table and went swiftly to the
+door.
+
+She sat on the side of the bed, her arms about her father's unconscious
+form and her head buried in his neck, sobbing.
+
+For an instant Michael was frozen to the spot with horror at her dangerous
+situation. If she had wanted to take the disease she could not have found a
+more sure way of exposing herself.
+
+The next instant Michael's senses came back and without stopping to think
+he sprang forward and caught her up in his arms, bearing her from the room
+and setting her down at the bath-room door.
+
+"Oh, Starr! what have you done!" he said, a catch in his voice like a sob,
+for he did not know what he was saying.
+
+Starr, frightened, struggling, sobbing, turned and looked at him.
+
+"Michael! How did you come to be here? Oh, what is the matter with my
+father?"
+
+"Go wash your hands and face quickly with this antiseptic soap," he
+commanded, all on the alert now, and dealing out the things the doctor
+had given him for his own safety, "and here! rinse your mouth with this
+quickly, and gargle your throat! Then go and change your things as quick as
+you can. Your father has the smallpox and you have been in there close to
+him."
+
+"The smallpox!"
+
+"Hurry!" commanded Michael, handing her the soap and turning on the hot
+water.
+
+Starr obeyed him because when Michael spoke in that tone people always did
+obey, but her frightened eyes kept seeking his face for some reassurance.
+
+"The smallpox! Oh, Michael! How dreadful! But how do you know? Has the
+doctor been here? And how did you happen to be here?"
+
+"I was passing last night when your father came home and he asked me to
+help him in. Yes, the doctor was here, and will soon come again and bring a
+nurse. Now hurry! You must get away from the vicinity of this room!"
+
+"But I'm not going away!" said Starr stubbornly. "I'm going to stay by my
+father. He'll want me."
+
+"Your father would be distressed beyond measure if he knew that you were
+exposed to such terrible danger. I know that he would far rather have you
+go away at once. Besides, he is delirious, and your presence cannot do him
+any good now. You must take care of yourself, so that when he gets well you
+will be well too, and able to help him get back into health again."
+
+"But you are staying."
+
+"It does not matter about me," said Michael, "there is no one to care.
+Besides, I am a man, and perfectly strong. I do not think I will take
+the disease. Now please take off those things you wore in there and get
+something clean that has not been in the room and go away from here as
+quickly as you can."
+
+Michael had barely persuaded her to take precautions when the doctor
+arrived with a nurse and the promise of another before night.
+
+He scolded Starr thoroughly for her foolhardiness in going into her
+father's room. He had been the family physician ever since she was born,
+knew her well; and took the privilege of scolding when he liked. Starr
+meekly succumbed. There was just one thing she would not do, and that was
+to go away out of the house while her father remained in so critical a
+condition. The doctor frowned and scolded, but finally agreed to let her
+stay. And indeed it seemed as if perhaps it was the only thing that could
+be done; for she had undoubtedly been exposed to the disease, and was
+subject to quarantine. There seemed to be no place to which she could
+safely go, where she could be comfortable, and the house was amply large
+enough for two or three parties to remain in quarantine in several
+detachments.
+
+There was another question to be considered. The nurses would have their
+hands full with their patient. Some one must stay in the house and look
+after things, see that they needed nothing, and get some kind of meals.
+Starr, of course, knew absolutely nothing about cooking, and Michael's
+experience was limited to roasting sweet potatoes around a bonfire at
+college, and cooking eggs and coffee at the fireplace on the farm. But a
+good cook to stay in a plague-stricken dwelling would be a thing of time,
+if procurable at all; so the doctor decided to accept the willing services
+of these two. Starr was established in her own room upstairs, which could
+be shut away from the front part of the house by a short passage-way and
+two doors, with access to the lower floor by means of the back stairs; and
+Michael made a bed of the soft couch in the tiny reception room where he
+had twice passed through trying experiences. Great curtains kept constantly
+wet with antiseptics shut away the sick room and adjoining apartments from
+the rest of the house.
+
+It was arranged that Michael should place such supplies as were needed at
+the head of the stairs, just outside the guarding curtains, and the nurses
+should pass all dishes through an antiseptic bath before sending them
+downstairs again. The electric bells and telephones with which the house
+was well supplied made it possible for them to communicate with one another
+without danger of infection.
+
+Starr was at once vaccinated and the two young people received many
+precautions, and injunctions, with medicine and a strict régime; and even
+then the old doctor shook his head dubiously. If those two beautiful faces
+should have to pass through the ordeal of that dread disease his old heart
+would be quite broken. All that skill and science could do to prevent it
+should be done.
+
+So the house settled down to the quiet of a daily routine; the busy city
+humming and thundering outside, but no more a part of them than if they
+had been living in a tomb. The card of warning on the door sent all the
+neighbors in the block scurrying off in a panic to Palm Beach or Europe;
+and even the strangers passed by on the other side. The grocery boy and
+the milkman left their orders hurriedly on the front steps and Michael and
+Starr might almost have used the street for an exercise ground if they had
+chosen, so deserted had it become.
+
+But there was no need for them to go farther than the door in front, for
+there was a lovely side and back yard, screened from the street by a high
+wall, where they might walk at will when they were not too busy with their
+work; which for their unskilled hands was hard and laborious. Nevertheless,
+their orders were strict, and every day they were out for a couple of hours
+at least. To keep from getting chilled, Michael invented all sorts of games
+when they grew tired of just walking; and twice after a new fall of snow
+they went out and had a game of snowballing, coming in with glowing faces
+and shining eyes, to change wet garments and hurry back to their kitchen
+work. But this was after the first few serious days were passed, and the
+doctor had given them hope that if all went well there was a good chance of
+the patient pulling through.
+
+They settled into their new life like two children who had known each other
+a long time. All the years between were as if they had not been. They made
+their blunders; were merry over their work; and grew into each other's
+companionship charmingly. Their ideas of cooking were most primitive and
+had it not been possible to order things sent in from caterers they and the
+nurses might have been in danger of starving to death. But as it was, what
+with telephoning to the nurses for directions, and what with studying the
+recipes on the outside of boxes of cornstarch and farina and oatmeal and
+the like that they found in the pantry, they were learning day by day to do
+a little more.
+
+And then, one blessed day, the dear nurse Morton walked in and took off
+her things and stayed. Morton had been on a long-delayed visit to her old
+father in Scotland that winter; but when she saw in the papers the notice
+of the calamity that had befallen the house of her old employer, she packed
+her trunk and took the first steamer back to America. Her baby, and her
+baby's father needed her, and nothing could keep Morton away after that.
+
+Her coming relieved the situation very materially, for though she had never
+been a fancy cook, she knew all about good old-fashioned Scotch dishes, and
+from the first hour took up her station in the kitchen. Immediately comfort
+and orderliness began to reign, and Starr and Michael had time on their
+hands that was not spent in either eating, sleeping, working or exercise.
+
+It was then that they began to read together, for the library was filled
+with all the treasures of literature, to many of which Michael had never
+had access save through the public libraries, which of course was not as
+satisfactory as having books at hand when one had a bit of leisure in a
+busy life. Starr had been reading more than ever before this winter while
+with her aunt, and entered into the pleasant companionship of a book
+together with zest.
+
+Then there were hours when Starr played softly, and sang, for the piano was
+far from the sick room and could not be heard upstairs. Indeed, if it had
+not been for the anxious struggle going on upstairs, these two would have
+been having a beautiful time.
+
+For all unknowing to themselves they were growing daily into a dear delight
+in the mere presence of one another. Even Michael, who had long ago laid
+down the lines between which he must walk through life, and never expected
+to be more to Starr than a friend and protector, did not realize whither
+this intimate companionship was tending. When he thought of it at all he
+thought that it was a precious solace for his years of loneliness; a time
+that must be enjoyed to the full, and treasured in memory for the days of
+barrenness that must surely follow.
+
+Upstairs the fight went on day after day, until at last one morning the
+doctor told them that it had been won, that the patient, though very much
+enfeebled, would live and slowly get back his strength.
+
+That was a happy morning. The two caught each, other's hands and whirled
+joyously round the dining-room when they heard it; and Morton came in with
+her sleeves rolled up, and her eyes like two blue lakes all blurred with
+raindrops in the sunlight. Her face seemed like a rainbow.
+
+The next morning the doctor looked the two over before he went upstairs and
+set a limit to their quarantine. If they kept on doing well they would be
+reasonably safe from taking the disease. It would be a miracle, almost, if
+neither of them took it; but it began to look as if they were going to be
+all right.
+
+Now these two had been so absorbed in one another that they had thought
+very little about the danger of their taking the disease themselves. If
+either had been alone in the house with nothing to do but brood it would
+have probably been the sole topic of thought, but their healthy busy hours
+had helped the good work on, and so they were coming safely out from under
+the danger.
+
+It was one bright morning when they were waiting for the doctor to come
+that Michael was glancing over the morning paper, and Starr trying a new
+song she had sent for that had just come in the mail the evening before.
+She wanted to be able to play it for Michael to sing.
+
+Suddenly Michael gave a little exclamation of dismay, and Starr, turning on
+the piano stool, saw that his face was white and he was staring out of the
+window with a drawn, sad look about his mouth and eyes.
+
+"What is it?" she asked in quick, eager tones of sympathy, and Michael
+turning to look at her vivid beauty, his heart thrilling with the sound of
+her voice, suddenly felt the wide gulf that had always been between them,
+for what he had read in the paper had shaken him from his happy dream and
+brought him back to a sudden realization of what he was.
+
+The item in the paper that had brought about this rude awakening was an
+account of how Buck had broken jail and escaped. Michael's great heart
+was filled with trouble about Buck; and instantly he remembered that he
+belonged to the same class with Buck; and not at all in the charmed circle
+where Starr moved.
+
+He looked at the girl with grave, tender eyes, that yet seemed to be less
+intimate than they had been all these weeks. Her sensitive nature felt the
+difference at once.
+
+He let her read the little item.
+
+Starr's face softened with ready sympathy, and a mingling of indignation.
+"He was one of those people in your tenements you have been trying to
+help?" she questioned, trying to understand his look. "He ought to have
+been ashamed to get into jail after you had been helping him. Wasn't he a
+sort of a worthless fellow?"
+
+"No," said Michael in quick defense, "he never had a chance. And he was not
+just one of those people, he was _the_ one. He was the boy who took care of
+me when I was a little fellow, and who shared everything he had, hard crust
+or warm cellar door, with me. I think he loved me--"
+
+There was something in Michael's face and voice that warned Starr these
+were sacred precincts, where she must tread lightly if she did not wish to
+desecrate.
+
+"Tell me about him," she breathed softly.
+
+So Michael, his eyes tender, his voice gentle, because she had cared to
+know, told her eloquently of Buck, till when he had finished her eyes were
+wet with tears; and she looked so sweet that he had to turn his own eyes
+away to keep from taking the lovely vision into his arms and kissing her.
+It was a strange wild impulse he had to do this, and it frightened him.
+Suppose some day he should forget himself, and let her see how he had dared
+to love her? That must never be. He must put a watch upon himself. This
+sweet friendship she had vouchsafed him must never be broken by word, look
+or action of his.
+
+And from that morning there came upon his manner a change, subtle,
+intangible,--but a change.
+
+They read and talked together, and Michael opened his heart to her as he
+had not yet done, about his work in the alley, his farm colony, and his
+hopes for his people; Starr listened and entered eagerly into his plans,
+yet felt the change that had come upon him, and her troubled spirit knew
+not what it was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+
+All this while Michael had been in daily communication with Sam, as well as
+with Will French, who with Hester's help had kept the rooms in the alley
+going, though they reported that the head had been sorely missed.
+
+Sam had reported daily progress with the house and about two weeks before
+Michael's release from quarantine announced that everything was done, even
+to the papering of the walls and oiling of the floors.
+
+A fire had been burning in the furnace and fireplaces for several weeks, so
+the plaster was thoroughly dry, and it was Michael's plan that Starr and
+her father were to go straight down to the farm as soon as they were free
+to leave the house.
+
+To this end Hester and Will had been given daily commissions to purchase
+this and that needful article of furniture, until now at last Michael felt
+that the house would be habitable for Starr and her precious invalid.
+
+During the entire winter Michael had pleased himself in purchasing rugs
+here and there, and charming, fitting, furniture for the house he was
+building. A great many things,--the important things,--had already been
+selected, and Michael knew he could trust Hester's taste for the rest. For
+some reason he had never said much to Starr about either Hester or Will,
+perhaps because they had always seemed to him to belong to one another, and
+thus were somewhat set apart from his own life.
+
+But one morning, Starr, coming into the library where Michael was
+telephoning Hester about some last purchases she was making, overheard
+these words: "All right Hester, you'll know best of course, but I think you
+better make it a dozen instead of a half. It's better to have too many than
+too few; and we might have company, you know."
+
+Now, of course, Starr couldn't possibly be supposed to know that it was a
+question of dishes that was being discussed so intimately. In fact, she did
+not stop to think what they were talking about; she only knew that he had
+called this other girl "Hester"; and she suddenly became aware that during
+all these weeks of pleasant intercourse, although she had addressed him as
+Michael, he had carefully avoided using any name at all for her, except on
+one or two occasions, substituting pronouns wherever possible. She had
+not noticed this before, but when she heard that "Hester" in his pleasant
+tones, her heart, brought the fact before her at once for invoice. Who was
+this girl Hester? And why was she Hestered so carelessly as though he had
+a right? Could it be possible that Michael was engaged to her? Why had she
+never thought of it before? Of course it would be perfectly natural. This
+other girl had been down in his dear alley, working shoulder to shoulder
+with him all these years, and it was a matter of course that he must love
+her, Starr's bright morning that but a moment before had been filled with
+so much sunshine seemed suddenly to cloud over with a blackness that
+blotted out all the joy; and though she strove to hide it even from
+herself, her spirit was heavy with something she did not understand.
+
+That evening Michael came into the library unexpectedly. He had been out in
+the kitchen helping Morton to open a box that was refractory. He found the
+room entirely dark, and thought he heard a soft sound like sobbing in one
+corner of the room.
+
+"Starr!" he said. "Starr, is that you?" nor knew that he had called her by
+her name, though she knew it very well indeed. She kept quite still for an
+instant, and then she rose from the little crumpled heap in the corner of
+the leather couch where she had dropped for a minute in the dark to cry out
+the strange ache of her heart when she thought Michael was safely in the
+kitchen for a while.
+
+"Why, yes, Michael!" she said, and her voice sounded choky, though she was
+struggling to make it natural.
+
+Michael stepped to the doorway and turned on the hall lights so that he
+could dimly see her little figure standing in the shadow. Then he came over
+toward her, his whole heart yearning over her, but a mighty control set
+upon himself.
+
+"What is the matter--dear?" He breathed the last word almost under his
+breath. He actually did not realize that he had spoken it aloud. It seemed
+to envelope her with a deep tenderness. It broke her partial self-control
+entirely and she sobbed again for a minute before she could speak.
+
+Oh, if he but dared to take that dear form into his aims and comfort her!
+If he but dared! But he had no right!
+
+Michael stood still and struggled with his heart, standing quite near her,
+yet not touching her.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" he breathed to himself, in an agony of love and
+self-restraint. But she did not hear the breath. She was engaged in a
+struggle of her own, and she seemed to remember that Hester-girl, and know
+her duty. She must not let him see how she felt, not for anything in the
+world. He was kind and tender. He had always been. He had denied himself
+and come here to stay with them in their need because of his gratitude
+toward her father for all he had done for him; and he had breathed that
+"dear" as he would have done to any little child of the tenement whom he
+found in trouble. Oh, she understood, even while she let the word comfort
+her lonely heart. Why, oh why had she been left to trifle with a handsome
+scoundrel? Why hadn't she been worthy to have won the love of a great man
+like this one?
+
+These thoughts rushed through her brain so rapidly that they were not
+formulated at all. Not until hours afterward did she know they had been
+thought; but afterwards she sorted them out and put them in array before
+her troubled heart.
+
+A minute she struggled with her tears, and then in a sweet little voice,
+like a tired, naughty child she broke out:
+
+"Oh, Michael, you've been so good to me--to us, I mean--staying here all
+these weeks and not showing a bit of impatience when you had all that great
+work in the world to do--and I've just been thinking how perfectly horrid
+I was to you last winter--the things I said and wrote to you--and how I
+treated you when you were trying to save me from an awful fate! I'm so
+ashamed, and so thankful! It all came over me to-night what I owed you, and
+I can't ever thank you. Can you forgive me for the horrid way I acted, and
+for passing you on the street that Sunday without speaking to you--I'm so
+ashamed! Will you forgive me?"
+
+She put out her little hands with a pathetic motion toward him in the half
+light of the room, and he took them in both his great warm ones and held
+them in his firm grasp, his whole frame thrilling with her sweet touch.
+"Forgive you, little Starr!" he breathed--"I never blamed you--" And there
+is no telling what might not have happened if the doctor had not just then
+unexpectedly arrived to perfect the arrangements for their going to the
+farm.
+
+When Michael returned from letting the doctor out, Starr had fled upstairs
+to her room; when they met the next morning it was with the bustle of
+preparation upon them; and each cast shy smiling glances toward the other.
+Starr knew that she was forgiven, but she also knew that there was a wall
+reared between them that had not been there before, and her heart ached
+with the knowledge. Nevertheless, it was a happy morning, and one could not
+be absolutely miserable in the company of Michael, with a father who was
+recovering rapidly, and the prospect of seeing him and going with him into
+the beautiful out-of-doors within a few hours.
+
+Michael went about the work of preparing to go with a look of solemn joy.
+Solemn because he felt that the wonderful companionship he had had alone
+with Starr was so soon to end. Joyful because he could be with her still
+and know she had passed through the danger of the terrible disease and come
+safely out of the shadow with her beauty as vivid as ever. Besides, he
+might always serve her, and they were friends now, not enemies--that was a
+great deal!
+
+The little world of Old Orchard stood on tiptoe that lovely spring morning
+when the party came down. The winding road that led to the cottage was
+arched all over with bursting bloom, for the apple trees had done their
+best at decorating for the occasion and made a wondrous canopy of pink and
+white for Starr to see as she passed under.
+
+Not a soul was in sight as they drove up to the cottage save Sam, standing
+respectfully to receive them in front of the piazza, and Lizzie, vanishing
+around the corner of the cottage with her pretty boy toddling after--for
+Lizzie had come down to be a waitress at Rose Cottage for the summer;--but
+every soul on the farm was watching at a safe distance. For Sam, without
+breathing a word, had managed to convey to them all the knowledge that
+those who were coming as their guests were beloved of Michael, their
+angel-hearted man. As though it had been a great ceremony they stood in
+silent, adoring groups behind a row of thick hedges and watched them
+arrive, each one glorying in the beauty of her whom in their hearts they
+called "the boss's girl."
+
+The room stood wide and inviting to receive them. There was a fire of logs
+on the great hearth, and a deep leather chair drawn up before it, with a
+smaller rocker at one side, and a sumptuous leather coach for the invalid
+just to the side of the fireplace, where the light of the flames would not
+strike the eyes, yet the warmth would reach him. Soft greens and browns
+were blended in the silk pillows that were piled on the couch and on the
+seats that appeared here and there about the walls as if they grew by
+nature. The book-case was filled with Michael's favorites, Will French
+had seen to this, and a few were scattered on the big table where a green
+shaded lamp of unique design, a freshly cut magazine, and a chair drawn at
+just the right angle suggested a pleasant hour in the evening. There were
+two or three pictures--these Michael had selected at intervals as he
+learned to know more about art from his study at the exhibitions.
+
+"Oh!" breathed Starr. "How lovely! It is a real home!" and the thought
+struck her that it would probably be Michael's and Hester's some day.
+However, she would not let shadows come spoiling her good time now, for it
+_was_ her good time and she had a right to it; and she too was happy in the
+thought that she and Michael were friends, the kind of friends that can
+never be enemies again.
+
+The invalid sank into the cushions of the couch with a pleased light in his
+eyes and said: "Son, this is all right. I'm glad you bought the farm," and
+Michael turned with a look of love to the man who had been the only father
+he had ever known. It was good, good to be reconciled with him, and to know
+that he was on the road to health once more.
+
+The doctor who had come down with them looked about with satisfaction.
+
+"I don't see but you are fixed," he said to Endicott. "I wouldn't mind
+being in your shoes myself. Wish I could stay and help you enjoy yourself.
+If I had a pair of children like those I'd give up work and come buy a farm
+alongside, and settle down for life."
+
+The days at the farm passed in a sort of charmed existence for Starr and
+her father. Everything they needed seemed to come as if by magic. Every
+wish of Starr's was anticipated, and she was waited upon devotedly by
+Lizzie, who never by so much as a look tried to win recognition. Starr,
+however, always keen in her remembrances, knew and appreciated this.
+
+After the first two days Michael was back and forth in the city. His
+business, which had been steadily growing before his temporary retirement
+from the world, had piled up and was awaiting his attention. His work in
+the alley called loudly for him every night, yet he managed to come down to
+the farm often and spent all his Sundays there.
+
+It was one Saturday evening about three weeks after their arrival at the
+farm, when they were all seated cosily in the living room of the cottage,
+the invalid resting on the couch in the shadow, Starr seated close beside
+him, the firelight glowing on her face, her hand in her father's; and
+Michael by the table with, a fresh magazine which he was about to read to
+them, that a knock came at the door.
+
+Opening the door, Michael found Sam standing on the piazza, and another
+dark form huddled behind Him.
+
+"Come out here, can't yer, Buck's here!"' whispered Sam.
+
+"Buck!" Michael spoke the word with a joyful ring that thrilled Starr's
+heart with sympathy as she sat listening, her ears alert with interest.
+
+"I'm so glad! So glad!" said Michael's voice again, vibrant with real
+welcome. "Come in, Buck, I've a friend in here who knows all about you. No,
+don't be afraid. You're perfectly safe. What? Through the windows? Well,
+we'll turn the light out and sit in the firelight. You can go over in that
+corner by the fireplace. No one will see you. The shades are down."
+
+Michael's voice was low, and he stood within the doorway, but Starr,
+because she understood the need, heard every word.
+
+There was dissent in a low whisper outside, and then Sam's voice growled,
+"Go on in, Buck, ef he says so." and Buck reluctantly entered, followed by
+Sam.
+
+Buck was respectably dressed in an old suit of Sam's, with his hands and
+face carefully washed and his hair combed. Sam had imbibed ideas and was
+not slow to impart them. But Buck stood dark and frowning against the
+closed door, his hunted eyes like black coals in a setting of snow, went
+furtively around the room in restless vigilance. His body wore the habitual
+air of crouching alertness. He started slightly when anyone moved or spoke
+to him. Michael went quickly over to the table and turned down the lamp.
+
+"You won't mind sitting in the firelight, will you?" he said to Starr in a
+low tone, and her eyes told him that she understood.
+
+"Come over here, Buck," said Michael motioning toward the sheltered corner
+on the other side of the fireplace from where Starr was sitting. "This is
+one of my friends, Miss Endicott, Mr. Endicott. Will you excuse us if we
+sit here and talk a few minutes? Miss Endicott, you remember my telling you
+of Buck?"
+
+Starr with sudden inspiration born of the moment, got up and went over to
+where the dark-browed Buck stood frowning and embarrassed in the chimney
+corner and put out her little roseleaf of a hand to him. Buck looked at it
+in dismay and did not stir.
+
+"Why don't yer shake?" whispered Sam.
+
+Then with a grunt of astonishment Buck put out his rough hand and underwent
+the unique experience of holding a lady's hand in his. The hunted eyes
+looked up startled to Starr's and like a flash he saw a thought. It was as
+if her eyes knew Browning's poem and could express his thought to Buck in
+language he could understand:
+
+  "All I could never be,
+  All men ignored in me,
+  This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped."
+
+Somehow, Starr, with her smile and her eyes, and her gentle manner,
+unknowingly conveyed that thought to Buck! Poor, neglected, sinful Buck!
+And Michael, looking on, knew what she had done, and blessed her in his
+heart.
+
+Buck sat down in the chimney corner, half in shadow with the lights from
+the great log flaring over his face. The shades were all drawn down, the
+doors were closed He was surrounded by friendly faces. For a few minutes
+the hunted eyes ceased their roving round the room, and rested on Starr's
+sweet face as she sat quietly, holding her father's hand. It was a sight
+such as poor Buck's eyes had never rested upon in the whole of his
+checkered existence, and for the moment he let the sweet wonder of it
+filter into his dark, scarred soul, with blessed healing. Then he looked
+from Starr to Michael's fine face near by, tender with the joy of Buck's
+coming, anxious with what might be the outcome; and for a moment the heavy
+lines in forehead and brow that Buck had worn since babyhood softened with
+a tender look. Perhaps 'tis given, once to even the dullest soul to see, no
+matter how low fallen, just what he might have been.
+
+They had been sitting thus for about fifteen minutes, quietly talking.
+Michael intended to take Buck upstairs soon and question him, but, first he
+wanted time to think what he must do. Then suddenly a loud knock startled
+them all, and as Michael rose to go to the door there followed him the
+resounding clatter of the tongs falling on the hearth.
+
+A voice with a knife edge to it cut through the room and made them all
+shiver.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Endicott!" it said. "I'm sorry to trouble you, but I've
+come on a most unpleasant errand. We're after an escaped criminal, and
+he was seen to enter your door a few minutes ago. Of course I know your
+goodness of heart. You take 'em all in, but this one is a jail bird! You'll
+excuse me if I take him off your hands. I'll try to do it as quietly and
+neatly as possible."
+
+The big, blustery voice ceased and Michael, looking at the sinister gleam
+of dull metal in the hands of the men who accompanied the county sheriff,
+knew that the crisis was upon him. The man, impatient, was already pushing
+past him into the room. It was of no sort of use to resist. He flung the
+door wide and turned with the saddest look Starr thought she ever had seen
+on the face of a man:
+
+"I know," he said, and his voice was filled with sorrow, "I know--but--he
+was one whom I loved!"
+
+"Wasted love! Mr. Endicott. Wasted love. Not one of 'em worth it!"
+blustered the big man walking in.
+
+Then Michael turned and faced the group around the fireplace and looking
+from one to another turned white with amazement, for Buck was not among
+them!
+
+Starr sat beside her father in just the same attitude she had held
+throughout the last fifteen minutes, his hand in hers, her face turned,
+startled, toward the door, and something inscrutable in her eyes. Sam stood
+close beside the fireplace, the tongs which he had just picked up in his
+hands, and a look of sullen rage upon his face. Nowhere in the whole wide
+room was there a sign of Buck, and there seemed no spot where he could
+hide. The door into the dining-room was on the opposite wall, and behind
+it the cheerful clatter of the clearing off of the table could be plainly
+heard. If Buck had escaped that way there would have been an outcry from
+Morton or the maid. Every window had its shade closely drawn.
+
+The sheriff looked suspiciously at Michael whose blank face plainly showed
+he had no part in making way with the outlaw. The men behind him looked
+sharply round and finished with a curious gaze at Starr. Starr, rightly
+interpreting the scene, rose to the occasion.
+
+"Would they like to look behind this couch?" she said moving quickly to the
+other side of the fireplace over toward the window, with a warning glance
+toward Sam.
+
+Then while the men began a fruitless search around the room, looking in the
+chimney closet, and behind the furniture, she took up her stand beside the
+corner window.
+
+It had been Michael's thoughtfulness that had arranged that all the windows
+should have springs worked by the pressing of a button like some car
+windows, so that a touch would send them up at will.
+
+Only Sam saw Starr's hand slide under the curtain a second, and unfasten
+the catch at the top; then quickly down and touch the button in the window
+sill. The window went up without a noise, and in a moment more the curtain
+was moving out gently puffed by the soft spring breeze, and Starr had gone
+back to her father's side. "I cannot understand it," said Michael, "he was
+here a moment ago!"
+
+The sheriff who had been nosing about the fireplace turned and came over
+to the window, sliding up the shade with a motion and looking out into the
+dark orchard.
+
+"H'm! That's where he went, boys," he said. "After him quick! We ought to
+have had a watch at each window as well as at the back. Thank you, Mr.
+Endicott! Sorry to have troubled you. Good night!" and the sheriff
+clattered after his men.
+
+Sam quickly pulled down the window, fastening it, and turned a look of
+almost worshipful understanding on Starr.
+
+"Isn't that fire getting pretty hot for such a warm night?" said Starr
+pushing back the hair from her forehead and bright cheeks. "Sam, suppose
+you get a little water and pour over that log. I think we will not need any
+more fire to-night anyway."
+
+And Sam, quickly hastened to obey, his mouth stretching in a broad grin as
+he went out the door.
+
+"She'd make a peach of a burglar," he remarked to himself as he filled a
+bucket with water and hurried back with it to the fire.
+
+Michael, in his strait betwixt law and love, was deeply troubled and had
+followed the men out into the dark orchard.
+
+"Daddy, I think you'd better get up to your room. This excitement has been
+too much for you," said Starr decidedly.
+
+But Mr. Endicott demurred. He had been interested in the little drama that
+had been enacted before him, and he wanted to sit up and see the end of it.
+He was inclined to blame Michael for bringing such a fellow into Starr's
+presence.
+
+But Starr laughingly bundled him off to bed and sat for an hour reading
+to him, her heart all the time in a flutter to know how things came out,
+wondering if Sam surely understood, and put out the fire; and if it would
+be safe for her to give him any broader hint.
+
+At midnight, Michael lay broad awake with troubled spirit, wondering over
+and over if there was anything he might have done for Buck if he had only
+done it in time--anything that would have been right to do.
+
+Softly, cautiously a man stole out of the darkness of the orchard until he
+came and stood close to the old chimney, and then, softly stealing on the
+midnight summer air there came a peculiar sibilant sound, clear, piercing,
+yet blending with the night, and leaving no trace behind of its origin. One
+couldn't tell from whence it came. But Michael, keeping vigil, heard, and
+rose upon his elbow, alert, listening. Was that Buck calling him? It came
+again, softer this time, but distinct. Michael sprang from his bed
+and began hastily throwing on his garments. That call should never go
+unanswered!
+
+Stealthily, in the light of the low, late moon, a dark figure stole forth
+from the old chimney top, climbed down on the ladder that had been silently
+tilted against it, helped to lay the ladder back innocently in the deep
+grass again, and joining the figure on the ground crept away toward the
+river where waited a boat.
+
+Buck lay down, in the bottom of the boat, covered with a piece of sacking,
+and Sam took up the oars, when a long, sibilant whistle like a night bird
+floated keenly through the air. Buck started up and turned suspicious eyes
+on Sam:
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"It's Mikky, I reckon," said Sam softly, reverently. "He couldn't sleep.
+He's huntin' yer!"
+
+Buck lay down with a sound that was almost a moan and the boat took up its
+silent glide toward safety.
+
+"It's fierce ter leave him this 'a'way!" muttered Buck, "Yous tell him,
+won't yer, an' her--she's a ly-dy, she is. She's all white! Tell her
+Buck'll do ez much fer her some day ef he ever gits the chanct."
+
+"In doin' fer her you'd be doin' fer him, I spekullate," said Sam after a
+long pause.
+
+"So?" said Buck
+
+"So," answered Sam. And that was the way Sam told Buck of the identity of
+Starr.
+
+Now Starr, from her darkened window beside the great chimney, had watched
+the whole thing. She waited until she saw Michael come slowly, sadly back
+from his fruitless search through the mist before the dawning, alone, with
+bowed head; and her heart ached for the problem that was filling him with
+sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+
+Starr was coming up to the city for a little shopping on the early morning
+train with Michael. The summer was almost upon her and she had not prepared
+her apparel. Besides, she was going away in a few days to be bridesmaid at
+the wedding of an old school friend who lived away out West; and secretly
+she told herself she wanted the pleasure of this little trip to town with
+Michael.
+
+She was treasuring every one of these beautiful days filled with precious
+experiences, like jewels to be strung on memory's chain, with a vague
+unrest lest some close-drawing future was to snatch them from her forever.
+She wished with all her heart that she had given a decided refusal to her
+friend's pleading, but the friend had put off the wedding on her account
+to wait until she could leave her father; and her father had joined his
+insistance that she should go away and have the rest and change after the
+ordeal of the winter. So Starr seemed to have to go, much as she would
+rather have remained. She had made a secret vow to herself that she would
+return at once after the wedding in spite of all urgings to remain with
+the family who had invited her to stay all summer with them. Starr had a
+feeling that the days of her companionship with Michael might be short.
+She must make the most of them. It might never be the same again after her
+going away. She was not sure even that her father would consent to remain
+all summer at the farm as Michael urged.
+
+And on this lovely morning she was very happy at the thought of going with
+Michael. The sea seemed sparkling with a thousand gems as the train swept
+along its shore, and Michael told her of his first coming down to see the
+farm, called her attention to the flowers along the way: and she assured
+him Old Orchard was far prettier than any of them, now that the roses were
+all beginning to bud. It would soon be Rose Cottage indeed!
+
+Then the talk fell on Buck and his brief passing.
+
+"I wonder where he can be and what he is doing," sighed Michael. "If he
+only could have stayed, long enough for me to have a talk with him. I
+believe I could have persuaded him to a better way. It is the greatest
+mystery in the world how he got away with those men watching the house. I
+cannot understand it."
+
+Starr, her cheeks rosy, her eyes shining mischievously, looked up at him.
+
+"Haven't you the least suspicion where he was hiding?" she asked.
+
+Michael looked down at her with a sudden start, and smiled into her lovely
+eyes.
+
+"Why, no. Have you?" he said, and could not keep the worship from his gaze.
+
+"Of course. I knew all the time. Do you think it was very dreadful for me
+not to tell? I couldn't bear to have him caught that way before you'd had a
+chance to help him; and when he used to be so good to you as a little boy;
+besides, I saw his face, that terrible, hunted look; there wasn't anything
+really wrong in my opening that window and throwing them off the track, was
+there?"
+
+"Did you open the window?"
+
+Starr nodded saucily. "Yes, and Sam saw me do it. Sam knew all about it.
+Buck went up the chimney right through that hot fire. Didn't you hear the
+tongs fall down? He went like a flash before you opened the door, and one
+foot was still in sight when that sheriff came in. I was so afraid he'd see
+it. Was it wrong?"
+
+"I suppose it was," he said sadly. "The law must be maintained. It can't be
+set aside for one fellow who has touched one's heart by some childhood's
+action. But right or wrong I can't help being glad that you cared to do
+something for poor Buck."
+
+"I think I did it mostly for--you?" she said softly, her eyes still down.
+
+For answer, Michael reached out his hand and took her little gloved one
+that lay in her lap in a close pressure for just an instant. Then, as if a
+mighty power were forcing him, he laid it gently down again and drew his
+hand away.
+
+Starr felt the pressure of that strong hand and the message that it gave
+through long days afterward, and more than once it gave her strength and
+courage and good cheer. Come what might, she had a friend--a friend strong
+and true as an angel.
+
+They spoke no more till the train swept into the station and they had
+hurried through the crowd and were standing on the front of the ferryboat,
+with the water sparkling before their onward gliding and the whole, great,
+wicked, stirring city spread before their gaze, the light from the cross on
+Trinity Church steeple flinging its glory in their faces.
+
+"Look!" said Michael pointing. "Do you remember the poem we were reading
+the other night: Wordsworth's 'Upon Westminster Bridge.' Doesn't it fit
+this scene perfectly? I've often thought of it when I was coming across in
+the mornings. To look over there at the beauty one would never dream of all
+the horror and wickedness and suffering that lies within those streets. It
+is beautiful now. Listen! Do you remember it?
+
+  "'Earth has not anything to show more fair:
+  Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
+  A sight so touching in its majesty:
+  This City now doth like a garment wear
+
+  "'The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
+  Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
+  Open unto the fields, and to the sky,
+  All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
+
+  "'Never did sun more beautifully steep
+  In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
+  Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
+
+  "'The river glideth at its own sweet will:
+  Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
+  And all that mighty heart is lying still!'"
+
+Starr looked long at the picture before her, and then at the face of her
+companion speaking the beautiful lines word by word as one draws in the
+outlines of a well-loved picture.
+
+Michael's hat was off and the beauty of the morning lay in sunlight on his
+hair and cheek and brow. Her heart swelled within her as she looked and
+great tears filled her eyes. She dared not look longer lest she show her
+deep emotion. The look of him, the words he spoke, and the whole wonderful
+scene would linger in her memory as long as life should last.
+
+Two days later Starr started West, and life seemed empty for Michael. She
+was gone from him, but still she would come back. Or, would she come back
+after all? How long could he hope to keep her if she did? Sad foreboding
+filled him and he went about his work with set, strained nerves; for now
+he knew that right or wrong she was heart of his heart, part of his
+consciousness. He loved her better than himself; and he saw no hope for
+himself at all in trying to forget. Yet, never, never, would he ask her to
+share the dishonor of his heritage.
+
+The day before Starr was expected to come back to Old Orchard Michael took
+up the morning paper and with rising horror read:
+
+    BANDIT WOUNDED AS FOUR HOLD UP TRAIN.
+
+    Express Messenger Protects Cash During Desperate Revolver Duel in Car.
+
+    Fort Smith, Ark.--Four bandits bungled the hold-up of a Kansas City
+    passenger train, between Hatfield and Mena, Ark., early to-day. One was
+    probably fatally wounded and captured and the others escaped after a
+    battle with the Express Messenger in which the messenger exhausted his
+    ammunition and was badly beaten.
+
+    When the other robbers escaped the wounded bandit eluded the conductor,
+    and made his way into the sleeper, where he climbed into an empty
+    berth. But he was soon traced by the drops of blood from his wound. The
+    conductor and a brakeman hauled him out and battled with him in the
+    aisle amid the screams of passengers.
+
+    The bandit aimed his revolver at the conductor and fired, but a sudden
+    unsteady turn of his wrist sent the bullet into himself instead of the
+    conductor. The wounded bandit received the bullet in his left breast
+    near the heart and will probably die. The Express Messenger is in the
+    hospital at Mena and may recover.
+
+    Had the bullet of the bandit gone as intended it would more than likely
+    have wounded one or two women passengers, who at the sound of trouble
+    had jumped from their berths into the aisle and were directly in the
+    path of the bullet.
+
+    There is some likelihood that the captured bandit may prove to be the
+    escaped convict, named "Buck," who was serving long sentence in the
+    state penitentiary, and for whom the police have been searching in vain
+    for the last three months.
+
+Michael was white and trembling when he had finished reading this account.
+And was this then to be the end of Buck. Must he die a death like that?
+Disgrace and sin and death, and no chance to make good? Michael groaned
+aloud and bowed his head upon the table before him, his heart too heavy
+even to try to think it out.
+
+That evening a telegram reached him from Arkansas.
+
+"A man named 'Buck' is dying here, and calls incessantly for you. If you
+wish to see him alive come at once."
+
+Michael took the midnight train. Starr had telegraphed her father she would
+reach Old Orchard in the morning. It was hard to have to go when, she was
+just returning. Michael wondered if it would always be so now.
+
+Buck roused at Michael's coming and smiled feebly.
+
+"Mikky! I knowed you'd come!" he whispered feebly. "I'm done for, pardner.
+I ain't long fer here, but I couldn't go 'thout you knowin'. I'd meant to
+git jes' this one haul an' git away to some other country where it was
+safe, 'nen I was goin' to try'n keep straight like you would want. I
+would a'got trough all right, but I seen her,--the pretty lady,--your
+girl,--standing in the aisle right ahin' the c'ndct'r, jes' es I wuz
+pullin' the trigger knowed her right off, 'ith her eyes shinin' like two
+stars; an' I couldn't run no resks. I ain't never bin no bungler at my
+trade, but I hed to bungle this time 'cause I couldn't shoot your girl! So
+I turned it jes' in time an' took it mese'f. She seen how 'twas 'ith me
+that time at your house, an' she he'ped me git away. I sent her word I'd do
+the same fer her some day, bless her--an' now--you tell her we're square!
+I done the bunglin' fer her sake, but I done it fer you too, pard--little
+pard--Mikky!"
+
+"Oh, Buck!" Michael knelt beside the poor bed and buried his face in the
+coverlet. "Oh, Buck! If you'd only had my chance!" he moaned.
+
+"Never you mind, Mikky! I ain't squealin'. I knows how to take my dose. An'
+mebbe, they'll be some kind of a collidge whar I'm goin', at I kin get a
+try at yet--don't you fret, little pard--ef I git my chancet I'll take it
+fer your sake!"
+
+The life breath seemed to be spent with the effort and Buck sank slowly
+into unconsciousness and so passed out of a life that had been all against
+him.
+
+Michael after doing all the last little things that were permitted him,
+sadly took his way home again.
+
+He reached the city in the morning and spent several hours putting to
+rights his business affairs; but by noon he found himself so unutterably
+weary that he took the two o'clock train down to the farm. Sam met him at
+the station. Sam somehow seemed to have an intuition when to meet him,
+and the two gripped hands and walked home together across the salt grass,
+Michael telling in low, halting tones all that Buck had said. Sam kept his
+face turned the other way, but once Michael got a view of it and he was
+sure there were tears on his cheeks. To think of Sam having tears for
+anything!
+
+Arrived at the cottage Sam told him he thought that Mr. Endicott was taking
+his afternoon nap upstairs, and that Miss Endicott had gone to ride with
+"some kind of a fancy woman in a auto" who had called to see her.
+
+Being very weary and yet unwilling to run the risk of waking Mr. Endicott
+by going upstairs, Michael asked Sam to bolt the dining-room door and give
+orders that he should not be disturbed for an hour; then he lay down on the
+leather couch in the living-room.
+
+The windows were open all around and the sweet breath of the opening roses
+stole in with the summer breeze, while the drone of bees and the pure notes
+of a song sparrow lulled him to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+
+Michael had slept perhaps an hour when he was roused by the sound of
+voices, a sharp, hateful one with an unpleasant memory in it, and a sweet,
+dear one that went to his very soul.
+
+"Sit down here, Aunt Frances. There is no one about: Papa is asleep and
+Michael has not yet returned from a trip out West. You can talk without
+fear of being heard."
+
+"Michael, Michael!" sniffed the voice. "Well, that's what I came to talk
+to you about. I didn't want to say anything out there where the chauffeur
+could hear; he is altogether too curious and might talk with the servants
+about it. I wouldn't have it get out for the world. Your mother would have
+been mortified to death about all this, and I can't see what your father
+is thinking about. He never did seem to have much sense where you were
+concerned--!"
+
+"Aunt Frances!"
+
+"Well, I can't help it. He doesn't. Now take this matter of your being down
+here, and the very thought of you're calling that fellow Michael,--as if he
+were a cousin or something! Why, it's simply disgusting! I hoped you
+were going to stay out West until your father was well enough to go away
+somewhere with you; but now that you have come back I think you ought to
+leave here at once. People will begin to talk, and I don't like it. Why,
+the fellow will be presuming on it to be intimate with you--"'
+
+Michael was suddenly roused to the fact that he was listening to a
+conversation not intended for his ears, and yet he had no way of getting
+out of hearing without passing the door in the front of which the two women
+were seated. Both the dining-room, door and the stairs were on the other
+side of the room from him and he would have to run the risk of being seen,
+by either or both of them if he attempted to cross to them. The windows
+were screened by wire nailed over the whole length, so he could not hope to
+get successfully out of any of them. There was nothing for it but to lie
+still, and pretend to be asleep if they discovered him afterwards. It was
+an embarrassing situation but it was none of his choosing.
+
+There was a slight stir outside, Starr had risen, and was standing with her
+back to the doorway.
+
+"Aunt Frances! What do you mean? Michael is our honored and respected
+friend, our protector--our--host. Think what he did for papa! Risked his
+life!"
+
+"Stuff and nonsense! Risked his life. He took the risk for perfectly good
+reasons. He knew how to worm himself into the family again--"
+
+"Aunt Frances! I will not hear you say such dreadful things. Michael is a
+gentleman, well-educated, with the highest ideals and principles. If you
+knew how self-sacrificing and kind he is!"
+
+"Kind, yes kind!" sniffed the aunt, "and what will you think about it when
+he asks you to marry him? Will you think he is kind to offer you a share in
+the inheritance of a nobody--a charity--dependent--a child of the slums? If
+you persist in your foolishness of staying here you will presently have all
+New York gossiping about you, and then when you are in disgrace--I suppose
+you will turn to me to help you out of it."
+
+"Stop!" cried Starr. "I will not listen to another word. What do you mean
+by disgrace? There could be no disgrace in marrying Michael. The girl who
+marries him will be the happiest woman in the whole world. He is good and
+true and unselfish to the heart's core. There isn't the slightest danger of
+his ever asking me to marry him, Aunt Frances, because I am very sure he
+loves another girl and is engaged to marry her; and she is a nice girl too.
+But if it were different, if he were free and asked me to marry him I would
+feel as proud and glad as if a prince of the highest realm had asked me to
+share his throne with him. I would rather marry Michael than any man I ever
+met, and I don't care in the least whether he is a child of the slums or a
+child of a king. I know what he is, and he is a prince among men."
+
+"Oh, really! Has it come to this? Then you are in love with him already and
+my warning comes too late, does it? Answer me! Do you fancy yourself in
+love with him."
+
+"Aunt Frances, you have no right to ask me that question," said Starr
+steadily, her cheeks very red and her eyes very bright.
+
+Michael was sitting bolt upright on the couch now, utterly forgetful of
+the dishonor of eavesdropping, fairly holding his breath to listen and
+straining his ears that he might lose no slightest word. He was devouring
+the dear, straight, little form in the doorway with his eyes, and her every
+word fell on his tired heart like raindrops in a thirsty land, making the
+flowers of hope spring forth and burst into lovely bloom.
+
+"Well, I do ask it!" snapped the aunt hatefully. "Come, answer me, do you
+love him?"
+
+"That, Aunt Frances, I shall never answer to anybody but Michael. I must
+refuse to hear another word on this subject."
+
+"Oh, very well, good-bye. I'll leave you to your silly fate, but don't
+expect me to help you out of trouble if you get into it. I've warned you
+and I wash my hands of you," and the angry woman flouted out to her waiting
+car, but the girl stood still in the doorway and said with dignity:
+
+"Good afternoon, Aunt Frances. I shall never ask your help in any way."
+
+Starr watched the car out of sight, great tears welling into her eyes and
+rolling down her cheeks. Michael sat breathless on the couch and tried to
+think what he ought to do; while his very being was rippling with the joy
+of the words she had spoken.
+
+Then she turned and saw him, and he stood up and held out his arms.
+
+"Starr, my little Starr! My darling! Did you mean all you said? Would you
+really marry me? I've loved you always, Starr, since first I saw you a tiny
+little child; I've loved your soft baby kisses and those others you gave me
+later when you were a little girl and I an awkward boy. You never knew how
+dear they were, nor how I used to go to sleep at night dreaming over and
+over again, those kisses on my face. Oh, Starr! answer me? Did you mean it
+all? And could you ever love me? You said you would answer that question to
+no one else but me. Will you answer it now, darling?"
+
+For answer she came and stood within his arms, her eyes down-drooped, her
+face all tears and smiles, and he folded her within his strong clasp and
+stooping, whispered softly:
+
+"Starr, little darling--my life--my love--my--_wife_!"
+
+And then he laid his lips against hers and held her close.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three weeks later when the roses were all aburst of bloom over the porch at
+Rose Cottage and June was everywhere with her richness and perfection of
+beauty, Starr and Michael were married on the piazza under an arch of
+roses; and a favored few of society's cream motored down to Old Orchard to
+witness the ceremony. In spite of all her disagreeable predictions and ugly
+threats Aunt Frances was among them, smiling and dominating.
+
+"Yes, so sensible of her not to make a fuss with her wedding just now, when
+her father is getting his strength back again. Of course she could have
+come to my house and been married. I begged her to--naturally she shrank
+from another wedding in connection with the old home you know--but her
+father seemed to dread coming into town and so I advised her to go ahead
+and be married here. Isn't it a charming place? So rustic you know, and
+quite simple and artistic too in its way. Michael has done it all, planned
+the house and everything, of course with Starr's help. You know it's quite
+a large estate, belonged to Michael's great grandfather once, several
+hundred acres, and he has used part of it for charitable purposes; has a
+farm school or something for poor slum people, and is really teaching them
+to be quite decent. I'm sure I hope they'll be duly grateful. See those
+roses? Aren't they perfectly _dear_?"
+
+It was so she chattered to those in the car with her all the way down to
+the farm; and to see her going about among the guests and smiling and
+posing to Michael when he happened to come near her, you would have thought
+the match all of her making, and never have dreamed that it was only
+because Michael's great forgiving heart had said: "Oh, forgive her and ask
+her down. She is your mother's sister, you know, and you'll be glad you did
+it afterwards. Never mind what she says. She can't help her notions. It was
+her unfortunate upbringing, and she's as much to be pitied as I for my slum
+education."
+
+The pretty ceremony under the roses was over, and Starr had gone upstairs
+to change the simple embroidered muslin for her travelling frock and motor
+coat, for Michael and Starr were to take their honeymoon in their own new
+car, a wedding gift from their father; and Endicott himself was to go to
+his sister's by rail in the company of Will French, to stay during their
+absence and be picked up by them on their homeward route.
+
+Michael stood among his friends on the piazza giving last directions to
+French who was to look after his law business also during his absence,
+and who was eager to tell his friend how he and Hester had planned to be
+married early in the fall and were to go to housekeeping in a five-roomed
+flat that might have been a palace from the light in Will's eyes. Hester
+was talking with Lizzie who had edged near the porch with her pretty
+boy hiding shyly behind her, but the smile that Hester threw in Will's
+direction now and then showed she well knew what was his subject of
+conversation.
+
+All the little colony had been gathered in the orchard in front of the rose
+arch, to watch the wedding ceremony, and many of them still lingered there
+to see the departure of the beloved bride and groom. Aunt Frances levelled
+her lorgnette at them with all the airs of her departed sister, and
+exclaimed "Aren't they picturesque? It's quite like the old country to have
+so many servants and retainers gathered about adoring, now isn't it!" And a
+young and eager debutante who was a distant cousin of Starr's. replied:
+
+"I think it's perfectly peachy, Aunt Frances."
+
+Suddenly in one of Will's eager perorations about the flat and its outlook
+Michael noticed the shy, eager look of Sam's face as he waited hungrily for
+notice.
+
+"Excuse me, Will, I must see Sam a minute," said Michael hurrying over to
+where the man stood.
+
+"Say, Mikky," said Sam shyly, grasping Michael's hand convulsively, "me an'
+Lizzie sort o' made it up as how we'd get tied, an' we thought we'd do it
+now whiles everybody's at it, an' things is all fixed Lizzie she wanted me
+to ask you ef you 'sposed _she'd_ mind, ef we'uns stood thur on the verandy
+whur yous did, arter you was gone?" Sam looked at him anxiously as though
+he had asked the half of Michael's kingdom and scarcely expected to get it,
+but Michael's face was filled with glory as he clasped the small hard hand
+of his comrade and gripped it with his mighty hearty grip.
+
+"Mind! She'd be delighted, Sam! Go ahead. I'm sorry we didn't know it
+before. We'd have liked to give you a present, but I'll send you the deed
+of the little white cottage at the head of the lane, the one that looks
+toward the river and the sunset, you know. Will you two like to live
+there?"
+
+Sam's eyes grew large with happiness, and a mist came over them as he held
+tight to the great hand that enclosed his own, and choked and tried to
+answer.
+
+Amid a shower of roses and cheers Michael and Starr rode into the sweet
+June afternoon, alone together at last. And when they had gone beyond the
+little town, and were on a stretch of quiet woodsy road, Michael stopped
+the car and took his bride into his arms.
+
+"Dear," he said as he tenderly kissed her, "I've just been realizing what
+might have happened if Buck hadn't seen you in time and taken the shot
+himself that I might have you, my life, my dear, precious wife!"
+
+Then Starr looked up with her eyes all dewy with tears and said, "Michael,
+we must try to save a lot of others for his sake." And Michael smiled and
+pressed his lips to hers again, with deep, sweet understanding.
+
+Then, when they were riding along again Michael told her of what Sam had
+asked, and how another wedding was to follow theirs.
+
+"Oh, Michael!" said Starr, all eagerness at once, "Why didn't you tell me
+sooner! I would have liked to stay and see them married. Couldn't we turn
+around now and get there in time if you put on high speed?"
+
+"We'll try," said Michael reversing the car; and in an instant more it was
+shooting back to Old Orchard, arriving on the scene just as Sam and Lizzie
+were shyly taking their place, hand in hand, under the roses, in as near
+imitation of Michael and Starr as their unaccustomedness could compass.
+
+It was Jim who discovered the car coming up the orchard lane.
+
+"For de lub o' Mike!" he exclaimed aloud. "Ef here don't come Mikky
+hisse'f, and _her_! Hold up dar, Mister preacher. Don't tie de knot till
+dey gits here!"
+
+And a cheer arose loud and long and echoed through the trees and over the
+river to the sea. Three cheers for the love of Michael!
+
+Sam and Lizzie bloomed forth with smiles, and the ceremony went forward
+with, alacrity now that the real audience was present.
+
+An hour later, having done their part to make the wedding festivities as
+joyous as their own had been, Michael and Starr started out again into the
+waning day, a light on their faces and joy in their hearts.
+
+Starr, her heart very full, laid her hand upon Michael's and said with
+shining eyes:
+
+"Michael, do you know, I found a name for you. Listen: 'And at that time
+shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of
+thy people: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that
+shall be found written in the book.' Michael, you are _my prince_!"
+
+And Michael as he stooped and kissed her, murmured, "My Starr."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lo, Michael!, by Grace Livingston Hill
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