T. Tembarom

o his first meal, all the boarders looked at him interestedly. They had

he incident of the G. Destroyer sounded good-natured. Mr. Joseph Hutchinson, the stout and discontented Englishman from Manchester, looked him over because the mere fact that he was a new-comer had placed him by his own rash act in the position of a target for criticism. Mr. Hutchinson had come to New York because he had been told that he could find backers among pro

manage that he should not be infuriated by waiting for butter and bread and second helpings. A fine, healthy old feudal feeling

" Ann Hutchinson murmured quietly, hoping that his words h

y, but one knew it would not, because she was firm and steady on her small feet. Ordinary strength could have lifted her with one hand, and would have been tempted to do it. She had a slim, round throat, and the English daisy face it upheld caused it to suggest to the mind the stem of a flower. The roundness of her cheek, in and out of which totally unexpected dimples flickered, and the forget-me-not blueness of her eyes, which were large and rather round also, made her look like a nice baby of singularly serious and observing mind. She looked at one as certain awe-inspiring things in perambulators look at one-with a far and clear silence of gaze which passes beyond earthly

part in life to act as a palliative: her mother, whose well-trained attitude toward the ruling domestic male was of the early Victorian order, had lived and died one. A nicer, warmer little woman had never existed. Joseph Hutchinson had adored and depended on her as much as he had harried her. When he had charged about like a mad bull because he could not button his collar, or find the pipe he had mislaid in his own pocket, she had never said more than

own. She had been called "Little Ann" all her life. This had held in the first place because her mother's name had been Ann also, and after her mother's death the diminutive had not fall

Ann. As it was, she kept them both, and in the course of three months the girl was Little Ann to almost every one in the house. Her normalness to

girl," Mrs. Bowse said to

the course of a few weeks that she was too busy taking care of her irritable, boisterous old Manchester father, and everybody else, to have time to be made love to even by young men who could buy new boots when the old ones had ceased to be water-tight, they were obliged to resign themselves to the, after all, comforting fact that she becam

t every weekend they found their forlorn and

was not inclined to any supine degree of resignation. He was a sensible youth, however, and gave no trouble. Even Joseph Hutchinson, who of course resented furiously any "nons

ted reluctantly to Little Ann one evening after a good dinne

his elders and betters, and several times when he chanced to be in the hall, and saw Mr. Hutchinson, in irritable, stout Englishman fashion, struggling into his overcoat, he sprang forward with a light, friendly air and

nd there was novelty in it. Soon every one was intimate with him, and interested in what he was doing. Galton's good-natured patronage of him was a thing to which no one was indifferent. It was felt to be the right thing in the right place. When he came home at night it beca

d attentively. She had gathered, and guessed from what she had gathered, a rather definite idea of what his hard young life had been. He did not tell pathetic stories about himself, but he and Jim Bowles and Julius Steinberger had become fas

enough to hold down a job with Galton. He's mighty good to me. If I knew more, I believe he'd give me a column to take care of-Up-tow

either been Christmas gifts bestowed upon Mrs. Bowse or department-store bargains of her own selection, purchased with thrifty intent. The red-and-green plush upholstered walnut chairs arid sofa had been acquired by her when the bankruptcy of a neighboring boarding-house brought them within her means. They were no longer very red or very green, and the cheerfully hopeful design of the tidies and cushions had been to conceal worn places and stains. The mantelpiece was adorned by a black-walnut-and-gold-framed mirror, and innumerable vases of

tea. Sometimes it was Mr. Jakes, a depressed little man whose wife had left him, for no special reason he could discover. Oftenest perhaps it was Julius Steinberger or Jim Bowles who did their ingenuous best to present themselves to her as energetic, if not successful, young business men, not wholly unworthy of attention and always breathing daily increasing devotion. Sometimes it was Tembarom, of whom her opinion had never been expressed, but who seemed to have made friends with her. She liked to hear

e," she said to Tembarom one night. "Perhaps

le. He really reddened t

nswered. "You're a regular wonder. You scarcely ever s

wing round and examining it. "I never was much of a talker. Father's a good talker, an

open expression of the fact that he was convinced that she was as thorough

her lap, and politely returning them, he added anxiously: "To think of you rem

could. I've noticed you're tha

aid elatedly. "S

es

rage me like that," he said, and then, his face

-town or down-town or in the country,-but I shouldn't think you'd have to have a c

rom g

he house of Mr. Jacob Sturtburger at 79 Two Hundredth Street on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Mis

I daresay the bride doesn't. I've never been to anything but a

r their mothers' point-lace wedding-veils some-times, but they're

returned

e carpet, thinking the thi

y: "you put things into a fellow's head. Yo

ld when, two weeks later, Biker, having gone upon a "bust" too prolonged, was dismissed with-ou

u could take thi

believed at the time,

hink, Mr. Galt

out," was Galton's answer. "I

ive it to me, I'll put up a migh

tough, long-built body, his sharp, eager, boy

make friends up in Harlem, and you won't find i

ce more. He was glad he was not holding his hat in his hand because h

ously. "I'd like to tell you how I appreciate your

t him and a swing in his entry which attracted all eyes at once. For some unknown reason e

T.?" Jim Bowles cri

in out of its ring with an unconscious flourish. "I'

culatory congratulation brok

for T. T.!" "Glad of it!" "Here

had shown sense and done the right thing again. Even Mr. Hu

riously, flushed and talkative, working themselves up with the exhilarated plannings of youth. Jim Bowles and Julius had been down on their luck for several weeks, and that "good old T. T." should come in wi

mbarom. "I don't know the first thing. I've got to think

d, I guess," sa

g to Miss Dooley, and he said: `That Tembarom fellow's going to do it! He doesn't know how to spell. I should like t

ou spell?" Jim inq

rds with two m's or two l's in them get me right down on the mat. But the thing that looks biggest to me is how to find out where the news is, and the name of

ock at the door?"

ave come on some household errand. But it was Little Ann Hutchinson instead of Mrs. Bowse,

s," she said maternally. "I p

chairs, and came forward in the usual com

sn't enough for a man to have new socks without having marks put on them! What are your

him with sober, round, for-get-me-not blue eyes, but with a deep dimple breaking ou

? That's what's been the matter with him for the last week. Don't you m

em forward. "Twenty-five marked down t

r with the practised eye o

," she decided, "and they might be put down to

tion in halls and at bedroom doors, and she had turned away with the n

hing," he exclaimed eagerly. "It

t is

too much if-say," he suddenly broke off, and standing with his hands in his pockets, l

; but I'm very glad about

young breast and hold her there firmly. He was half ashamed of himself when he realized it, but he knew that his venial weakness was shared by Jim Bowles and Steinberger and probably others. She was

I believe you'd help me to get somewhere. I've got to fix up a scheme for getting next the people who have things happening t

eyes fixed on him thoughtfully

ng down and sitting there while I talk at you and try

ht it ove

pare me," she made up her m

in two or three minutes with her

d. "He's reading his paper

nd Little Ann sat down in the cozy-corner with her work-basket on her knee. Tembarom drew up a

" she

r friends to read about their weddings and receptions, and would buy a dozen copies to send away when their names were in. There's no end of women and girls that'd like to see their clothes described and let their friends read the descriptions. They'd buy the paper, too, you bet. It'll be a big circulation-increaser. It's Galton's idea, and he gave the job to Biker because he thought an educated

tle Ann. She was marking a letter J in red cotton, and her

t I guess you've just hit the dot. Perhaps that was it. He wanted to do Fifth Avenue work anyway, and he didn't go at Harlem right.

e Ann. "You've got a friendly way and

ot coyness, but simple, calm absorption. If she had not been making the J, she would have s

e Ann. What a man seems to need most is just plain twenty-cents-a-yard sen

the page." The words, spoken in the shrewd-sounding Manchester accent,

I've got to find out for myself how to get next to the peopl

titch of the letter J and laid th

hing, Mr. Tembarom," she said.

a deligh

ke out, "the

to the shops where they're sold and could make friends with the people, they'd tell you w

h admiring enthusiasm

iven me the whole show, just like I tho

the next thing after t

e "halls" in which they were held. You could get information at such places. Then there were the churches, and the florists who decorated festal scenes. Tembarom's excitement grew as he talked. One plan le

of other people," Little Ann summed him up in h

ctionately, but his voice was affectio

just in three words!" he said

help," she went on with ingenuous worldly wisdom. "They'll think it'll be a kind of advertise

his knee, "there's another! You thi

a moment to

on it is manifestly to instruct the superior man. She had been born in a small Manchester street and trained by

't hurt any woman to let 'em be, if she can help 'em to think reasonable. Just you make a man feel comfortable in his mind and push him the reasonable way. But never you shove him, Ann. If you do, he'll just get all upset-like. Me and your f

belonged to the male development which is not automatica

red, still trying not to look affectionate, "but I'

regret in her voice. "Father's got tired of trying America.

d out forlornly, "Oh Lord! What

did before we came

ctually got up from his chair and began to walk

titches into a red B. No human bein

dressmakers, you know. If you could make friends with a dressmaker or two they'd tell you wha