The Great God Success

od-bye. Another night as he was passing her room he saw her stretched upon the floor, her head supported by her elbo

voices of the two girls. A week later, toward the end of July, he found Alice sitting on the front stoop, when he came from dinner. She was obviously in the depths of the "blues." Her eyes

gown nor in the big hat with its coquettish flowers nodding over the brim was there much of fashion. But there was a certain distinction

k?" she asked, lass

ght. The children were still romping and shouting. Many fat elderly women-mothe

ake her feel better to talk of her troubles. "If I were

uld. Nellie cries and gets over things. I feel awful

oo young

ng; again, I'm not. I hat

ter? Has Nellie

th a joyless little laugh-"she quit work and wou

won't g

he had rattled on as if there were nothing to conceal. He sat watching her, she looking straight before her, her small bare hands clasped in her lap. He was pitying her keenly-this child, at once stunted

pils. Her chin and mouth were firm enough, yet suggested weakness through the passions. Her clear skin had the

is going to becom

chance. I don't seem to be able to have any fun without getting into tr

lf. But there had always been a certain lightness in it. Here was a mere child who evidently thought, and thought wi

was weighing upon her. And Howard feared that she, was right. Even the readiest of all commodities, advice

t you f

body'd think I was respectable. And I guess I'm not so very. There's Nellie and her-friends. Oh, the girls jo

ious for her explana

seem to be any good reason. I've thought I would

urs and became well acquainted. He found that she had an intelligent way of looking at things,

or "The Manhattan" over in Second Avenue. Late in June she bought a new gown-a pale-grey with ribbons and hat to match. Howard was amused at the anxious expression in her gold-brown eyes

ng he watched her lazily. She handled his books with a great deal of awe. She opened one of them and sat on the floor in the chil

arrange the books and papers on the table. He was looking at her but thinking of something el

?" he asked, "are

. I do this often." She went slowly into the back room where the maid was. In a few minutes she returned, appa

e said. "You've got lots of pret

sister-in-law

l she began to sing and kept it up in her own room, quieting down only to burst forth again. He did not even especially note t

and she of learning. He was conscious of her extreme youth and of the impassable gulf of thought and taste between them. He did not take her feelings i

ung-German-American-Shooting-Society." The next day a reporter for the Sun whom he knew slightly said to him with

ce, ashamed that he had put himself and Alice in such a position. But the incident brough

must stop at once. It is unjust to her. An

herself up to the dream that he would presently love her in return, with the end as in the story books. Indeed love stories became her constant compa

led upon the lounge, the table drawn close and upon it a lamp shedding a dim light through the room but enough near by to let him read. He had dropped his book and was thinking wheth

thought you were ou

was wearing a loose wrapper of flowered silk, somewhat worn and never very fine. Her bl

been all evening

. She lives in Harlem, and she wa

hat he was interested and not pleased. "Th

hair. "She gave me a good talking to," she went on with a smile. "She told me I ought not to live alone at my age.

y judicial tone: "Well, I think she's right. I don't see what else there i

y night. She says she doesn't care what happens to her. I saw her last night and she wanted me to come with her. She

eeping his eyes care

got anything at all to live for, she doesn't wan

," said Howard with a smile

eriously, "I've thought of it

go with your frie

," she replied, shaking her

laughed Howard. "But of course yo

Alice, tracing one of the flowers in her

would and I wou

ou, I'm sure," she said, the colour risin

money? It takes money

e. "You oughtn't to marry those extravagant girls. I've read about them and I

t these things for your age," said

persisted, "you ou

would be very clever, very adroit. He would not let her suspect that he had any idea of her thoughts

ould call a confirmed bachelor. I wouldn't marry any girl who had not been brought up as I have been. We should be unhappy together unsuited each to the other. She would soon hate me. Besides, I wish to be free. I care mo

ap; her face was down so that he could barel

she said in a voice tha

he answered, intending to s

y instantly. With rude hand he had suddenly toppled into the dust this child's dream-castle of love and happiness which he had himself helped her build

he thought, "only make matte

uld herself have found hope. But she had not a suspicion that these strong words of apparent finality were spoken to give himself courage, to kee

ward her again. She was darting from the room. A second later her door crashed. He

he door was wide open; none of her belongings was in sight; th

g," she said, "and the room'