The Fruit of the Tree

ad fallen and the wide suburban street was almost dark, except when

moment, and she was amused to see that he failed to identify the uniformed nurse with the girl in her tr

e turned and walked besid

t. But it's just as short

and qu

r long steps falling naturally into time, thoug

w nothing about the relation between

l was endowed by one o

hat between them--all kinds of subterranean passages." He paused, and began

ief at t

--thinks one of the mill-hands is only slightly injured, it's natural that

I don't

ural that a man should be

rofessional hono

that, Truscomb being high in favour with the Westmores, and the Westmores having a lien on the hospital

sed abruptly on th

want me to think well o

ents. She was, in fact, as he now noticed, still young enough to dislike being excused for her youth. In her severe uniform of blue linen, her dusky skin darkened by the nurse's cap, and by the pale b

cknowledged. "But let me put Dil

ause of my interest in that p

e needs help--and th

"Please tell me about him f

other question. "I wonder how m

t I've managed to pick up in t

under its dark roll of hair, and said, ha

pped suddenly, and he put his hand behind him to get a tool he needed out of his trouser-pocket. He reached back a little too far, and the card behind him caught his hand in its million of diamond-pointed wires. Truscomb and the ove

eager breath. "And

g a bobbin-boy--and he hadn't yet learned how cautious a man must be in there. The cards are so close to each other that even the old hands

y crowd the roo

of floor-space. It costs more to increase the flo

o on," sh

that Dillon's hand would certainly be saved, and that he might get back to work in a

ndignation. "Mr. Amherst--who gave you

nager h

rba

ed me Disbro

et; then she said, in a voice still stirred with feeling: "As I to

Mrs.

ng to a death that very morning in the surgical ward, we happened to have a bed ready for the poor man within three hours of the acc

ughter: she joined in it, and for a moment they were blent in t

hours' delay didn't help matters--how is it

er question, which we haven't time for now." He waited a moment, and th

and probably the whole arm." She spoke with a thrilling of her slight frame that

her. "Good God! Never any

ver

e won'

la

ren. She ruined her health swallowing cott

old me ye

rise. "You've had

." Miss Brent paused to steady her voice. "It's the curse of my trade that it's always tempting me to interfere in cases where I can do no possible g

she had regained her composure. Then h

--and I am not unused to slums. It looks so dead

oment she asked: "Does the cotto

ourse the harm could be immensely reduced by taking up the old rough fl

such cases? Where an operativ

there was a phth

ing in return for the tw

care at the hospital, and they have

leanable floors? Sh

bending over the looms or cards. The pay is lower, of course, but she's very grat

"She can't possibly stand more than two or

that in less than that time he

them when the wife is a hopeless i

hospital. "I know what I should do if I could get anywhere near Dillon--give him an ove

curiously. "Shou

s I know them, I believe I should feel justified--" He broke off. "

haps the professional instinct

hen all the good

ould do it himself if he could--when he

y of such cases that his employers, after ruining h

t ought to count

ore to the charge of uncharitableness; and suddenly she exclaimed, lookin

rd. Here the spacious houses, withdrawn behind shrubberies and lawns, revealed in their silhouettes every form of architectural experiment, from t

have_ gone a block or two out of our way. I always forget wh

don't dine till seven, and I can get home in

can take a Liberty Street car instead. They ru

he continued: "I haven't yet explained why I am so a

t you've told me about Dr. Disbrow

ofessional etiquette, or asked you to do so, if I hadn't a hope of bettering things; but I have, and t

that," she

d last winter," he went on, "and my hope--it's no mo

the ne

, and she is coming here to-morrow to

doesn't liv

loyer to live near the employed. The Westmores have always lived

ght to be a good sign. Did she never show any i

en there in my time. She is very young, and Westmore himself didn't care. It wa

nies--but I suppose Mrs. Westmore doesn't unite all the offices in her o

can see by the names that it's all in the family. Halford Gaines married a Miss Westmore, and represents the clan at Hanaford--leads society, and keeps up the social credit of the name. As treasurer, Mr. Halford Gaines kept strictly to his special

es? Is there no hope of his breaki

ct in life is to be taken for a New Yorker. So far he hasn't been here much, except for the quarterly me

loped her interest in social problems, an

rhaps Mrs. Westmore's coming will make a chan

her husband was really the whole company. The o

knows but poor Dillon's case may help others--prov

abuses I want to have remedied. The difficulty will be to get

that only two short flights of steps intervened between the gate-posts and the portico. Light shone from every window of the pompous rusticated fa?ade--in the turreted "Tuscan

ted of two men, one slightly lame, with a long white moustache and a distinguished nos

e younger of the two ladies, turning back to her maid, exposed to the glare of th

d: "I suppose so; I've never seen her----" she continued excitedly: "

rt of remembrance. "I don't know--I must have

answered, as though touched on a sore point: "I mean people

ay be going to count," sh

of the red-carpeted Westmore hall on which the glass doors were just being closed.

th me. But isn't this my corner?" she exclaimed, as they turn

ked interior her companion, as his habit was, stood for a while where she had left him, gazing at some indefinite poi

and drew out a pocket Shakespeare. He read on, indifferent to his surroundings, till the car left the asphalt streets and illumin

iver-bend, and the sudden neatness of the manager's turf and privet hedges. The scene was so familiar to Amherst that he had lost the habit of comparison, and his absorption in the moral and material needs of the workers sometimes made him forget the outward setting of their lives. But to-night he recalled the nurse's comment--"it looks so dead"--and the phrase roused him to a fresh perception of the scene. With sudden disgust he saw the sordidness of it all--the poor monotonous houses, the trampled grass-banks, the lean dogs prowling in refuse-heaps, the reflection of a crooked gas-

ad--stone dead: there isn't a dro

carved. The pillared "residences" had, after this, inevitably fallen to base uses; but the old house at Hopewood, in its wooded grounds, remained, neglected but intact, beyond the first bend of the river, deserted as a dwelling but "held" in anticipation of rising values, when the inevitable growth of Westmore should increase the demand for small building lots. Whenever Amherst's eyes were refreshed by the hanging foliage above the roofs of Westmore, he longed to convert the abandoned country-seat into a park and playground for th

and egotism, how can one be pulled out without making the whole thing topple? And whatev

ed cottages. Approaching one of these by a gravelled path he pushed open the door, and entered a s

down the evening paper as she rose,

he said, stoop

iled back at him, not repro

d the fine lines that experience had drawn about her mouth and eyes. The eyes themselves, brightly black and glancing, had none of the veiled depths of her s

plain will be later still. I had to go into H

n have a minute to ourselves. Si

had not seen those small hands in motion--shaping garments, darning rents, repairing furniture, exploring the inner economy of clocks. "I make a sort of r

chair. "I was trying to find out so

nce toward the door, rose to

el

with his nurse when she we

nder you could g

happened to be here on a visit. As it was, I had some diffic

ight glance from the needl

essly

own her eyes. "Do you s

as quite comp

ay, here on a visit

a vague look. "I never

w like you! Did she say w

ak Street--but she did

if she's not the thin dark girl I saw the other day wi

particular, and following some irrelevant thread of association in utter disregard of the main issue. But to-night, preoccupied with his s

for one of the infant Dillons. "She takes her pity out in action, like that quiet nurse, who was as cool as a drum-major till she took off her uniform--and then!" His face softened at the recollection

his chair. She leaned on it a moment, pushi

onsidered what yo

his head to

ontinued. "How are all these in

moment; then he said coldly: "You ar

mured: "It's not the kind of pl

k. "I ought to have followed a profession, like my grandfather; but my father's blood

genius for mechanics, and if he had lived he would hav

hem. I wish I had inherited more from him, or less; but I must make the best of what I am, rather than try to be so

you've chosen your work, it's natural

esture. "Never fear; I coul

ou? Do you forget that Scotch ove

emember him," said Amherst grimly; "but I have a

with relief. "There's Duplain," he said, going into the passage; but on the threshold he encountered, not the young Alsa

ing? To th

's sick

press his lips close to check an exclamation. "S

and I saw Mrs. Westmore arriving tonight! Have supper, mother--we won't wait for Duplain." His fac

herst sighed, crossing th