The Helpers

a-jangle and banished her appetite. The exciting cause was a paragraph in the morni

and couldn't find," he queried, passing the paper acro

y with her father's remark in abeyance, and the shock came with the conviction that the self-slain one was Jeffard, whose name might easily become Jeffrey in the hurried notes of a news-gatherer. The meagre particulars tallied a

rved an outward presentment of cheerfulness during the remainder of the meal. But when she was free she ran up to her room and was s

dear! What i

ying in a dejected little heap on the floor before the fireless grate. She shook her head in

as an account of a suicide. Mr. Jeffard has kill

Bartrow's friend. But I don't understa

at Mr. Jeffard was in trouble, and that he had a place

Getting no more than a smothered sob in reply to this, My

fe of me see how you are to blame, in the remotest sense; but if you are, it's foolish to gri

hat, but she refus

ra. I'm just as sure as if I had stood beside him whe

n she had made herself ready to go out,

she objected; "I'll share the misery of it wit

ting it in train, she found her small henchman selling papers on his regular beat in front of the Opera House; and

o see the man who killed himse

no morbid cur'osi

go?-if I as

t de old feller wid de hoofs an

ou to go. I am afraid it is the

ough, ain't it now! An' jest w'en I'd got 'quainted with him an

"Go quickly, Tommie," she directed; "and hurry back as soon as

far to seek, and the small sc

t I skinned round to where I could see de t

Are you q

lence to his convictions when he saw that his patron saint was sorely in need of comfort. "Maybe 'tain't him, a

t to Constance the minutes marched leaden-footed. W

mogged in, a-thinkin' I'd offer him a paper if he happened to be there and kicked. Say, Miss Constance; 'tain'

needed not to ask the result of the investigation. Miss Van Vetter was not less curious than sh

a telegram from Bartrow, asking if she had yet learned Jeffard's whereabouts, it was too much, and she shared the misery with her cousin, as she had p

to me to be pitifully commonplace and inconsequent; but here was a mission which asked for all sorts of heroism, f

e for her neighbor was no respecter of p

in me to make him talk about himself that night at the opera. And besides, when I met him the next evening at Mrs. Calmaine's, he told me enough t

ised sympathy, a

mie. And afterward, when I tried to explain, he made me understand that I mu

or known anything about him at first, as you did; but in your place yesterday, and with your knowledge of the circum

ogether impossible; though if I had known what w

all beat the seconds, and Myra was silent; then she cr

"Are you quite sure you haven't been telling me half-truths? Wasn't there the lea

id not set itself in words. "He was Dick's

nce felt a warm tear plash on her hand. This was quite anothe

you for this poor fellow. Just to think of him lying there with no one within a thousand miles to care the least little bit about

hat do you kn

much. But surely you haven't for

helping Mr.

es

adn't fo

if one who did such things would surely be helped in his own

th a sigh; and Myra went bac

ssible chance that Tommie

it, and he would have strained a point to comfort me if the facts had g

hind it, Constance waylaid her father in the h

n his pockets for his check-book-"it is something very different, this time; different

elf down on the Platte, or was it Cherry Creek? The fe

u know. Won't you go to the coroner's office and see if it

e. "It won't be the first one I've seen that died wit

o say: "Hold on, here; I don't know your Mr. Jeffard fro

you remember the man who sat next to me the

u and Myra made a bet on

sty. Would you know him if

dozen times since,-met him out here on the

d, turning away that he might not s

l go and identi

d-bound car in the evening. Then he found that he was too late. The body of the suicide had been shipped East in accordance with telegraphic instructions received at n

en she cannoned against Jeffard at the turn in the dingy hallway. Neither was it remarkable that her strength should forsake her for the moment; nor that Jeffard, seeing her plight, should forget his degradation and give her timely help by leading

her first words. "I-I

his comment. "But wha

hot himself. I was afraid it was you, and wh

as mirthless: "It was a little previous, but so justifiable that I really

ing with a pathetic little appeal for forgiveness i

casting pearls before swine in my case, Miss Elliott. I have sown the wind, deliberately and with malice aforethought, and now I

lp us, if we could but see and lay hold of them. Why won't you let Dick help you

I wouldn't accept help from Bartrow as willingly as I would from any one in the world; it

rati

d at least be able to give bond for his good behavior. I can't do that now. I wouldn'

"It's only the power to do things, good or b

d shortly. "I have s

ined. "But grace doesn't die

particular allotment of grace is de

an tha

window so that he had n

long as the condition to be attained is ahead there

ty, and he did not finish. But the door was ope

e. In a way, I am Mr. Bartrow's deputy, and if I have to tell him you refuse to l

in his eyes, despite his efforts reasonward. "I

y may y

t concerns

that she had misunderstood. Wherefore he pl

her well enough to believe that I could win my way back to decency and uprightness for her

to lay hold of at last, and

know?" s

ame and went again. "

't told her al

n, she can't understand. I think I didn'

ar beyond r

his moment I should never recover the lost ground of self-respect. There is nothing to go b

ou would be with another. Can't you begin to

the rags that underlay it-"do you understand now? I have pawned the shirt off my back-not to satisfy the cravings of hunger, but to feed a baser

d her chin quivered a little when she spoke.

a heavy step on the stair. Constance rose from her seat in the window embrasure with a nervous thrill of embarrassment, but Jeffard relieved he

d clenched his hands and swore softly, because, forsooth, she had for some fleeting pulse-beat of time to breathe the same air with th

n the turning of a leaf Jeffard was at the door of the room in the end of the corridor. What he saw and heard made a man of him for the moment. Margaret Gannon had evidently been surprised at her sewing-machine; the work was still under the needle, and the chair was over

, so it be fierce enough, is its own elixir. Thinking of nothing but that he should acquit himself as a man before the woman he lov

e corner with Margaret when the two men went down together, but she gave a glad little cry when she saw that Jeffard had won the fall; that he had wrenched the drawn pistol from the other's grasp and flun

d darted into the corridor with Jeffard at his heels. There was a sharp scurry of racing feet in the hall, a prolonged crash as of a heavy

meet him and cut

it was for Margaret's sake and mi

ut and bleeding, but he k

, I hope." Then to Margaret: "Do y

not be troubling me any more, I'm thinking. It's Pet

aptured weapon and put

alone. Miss Elliott, please stay here a moment un

sty embrasure when she overtook him. There was a sweet shyness in her man

t you have disproved all the hard things you were trying to

bject appeal with his hopeless passion for its motive, and a plunge back into the

that you will consider it," sh

sunlight falling upon her face, irradiating it and making a shimmering halo of the red-brown hair and deep wells of the clear gray eyes. A vagrant thought came to hi

promise e

ied to bring herself to do the thing which compassion suggested. But compassion won; and Jeffard l

ged, with a beseeching look whi

nd the smile ended i

ark of manhood left in him. But that is why I take it; I have been trying t

red; and because her sorrow throttl