Together

s office, a dingy little room in the corner of the second story of the old brick building which had housed the wholesale hardware business of Parrott and P

re Vicksburg. I went to consult him about a boil on my leg. It was a bad boil,-it hurt me.... Your father was a fine man-What are you doing in St. Loui

spected that the old hardware merchant, who was a close friend of the chief men in the road, had spoken the needed word to lift the clerk out of the rut. At any rate the Colon

hat dingy office in the Parrott and Price establishment, his hands trembed nervou

, shoving the papers towards the waiting s

red buoyantly. "They ha

uarters at Torso-superi

le

u'll be back he

ope

he always did when he contemplated energetic youth,

out another matter,"

I can do

rry your daughter,-and

s salary was not much to offer a girl like the Colonel's daughter; but it would go far in Torso-and it was the first step. Finally he was silent, well aware that there was small possibility that he should ever be a rich man, as Colonel Price was, and that it

lle say?" the

here if I didn't think

cour

e top of his desk, signifying t

the best;" he laid grave emphasis on this watchword. "And the best is that Isabelle should be happy in her marriage. If she loves the man s

urned for a fleeting mo

o-after all she's had," Lane conceded. "But I don't expect that Torso is

nodded sym

er to live in Torso or in any other place-if she ha

on of the Prices in the city, comprehended the splendid simplicity, the single-mindedness of the man, who co

o make her happy all her li

think you will succeed, if she

ended towards the river, passing on their way the massive skeleton of the ten-story building that was to house, when completed, the Parrott and Price business. It rose in the smoky sunset, s

ing it,-he's the best in

of the city, the Colonel apparently having some purpose that

a couple of rooms over there the first winter. The store was just a block further west. It's torn down now. I passed some of the best days of my life in those rooms on the

, and though she was glad that Isabelle had not accepted any of "those foreigners," yet Harmony Price had very definite ideas of the position that

better off than we were,"

ar it!" his wife retorted. What one generation had been able to gain in the s

new country club. Mrs. Price spent an exciting three months running back and forth between New York, St. Louis, and Torso furnishing the new home. Isabelle's liberal allowance was to continue indefinitely,

*

casionally on a hotel register among other queer places that Americans confess to as home. At Pittsburg it is a round black spot on the map, in the main ganglia of the great A. and P. an

quarters of the great A. and P., near the soft-coal beds, with a tin-plate factory, a carpet factory, a carriage factory, and a dozen other mills and factories, Torso is a black smudge in a flat green landscape from which many lines of electric railwa

o. From the western veranda she could see the roof of the new country club through a ragged group of trees. On the other side were dotted the ample houses of Torso aristocracy, similar to hers, as she knew, finished in hard wood, electric-lighted, telephoned, with many baths, large "picture" windows of plate glass, with potted ferns in them, and much the same furniture,-wholesome, comfortable "homes." Isabelle, turning back to her house to cope with the three Swedes that her mother had sent on from St. Louis, had a queer s

rance to his face and linen, the mark of Torso, the same mark that the mill-hands across the street from the A. and P. offices brought home to their wives.... Thus the long summer days dragged. For distraction there was a mutiny in the crew of Swedish servants, but Isabelle, with her mother's instinct for domestic management, quickly produced order, in spite of the completely servantless state of Torso. She would telegraph to St. Louis for what she wanted and somehow always got it. The house ran,-that was her business

ghbors in those ample mansions scattered all about the prairie.

o-day. What is she?

t banker here," her hus

class.' They are going through the Holy Land

ways got her clothes from New York." She added gently, "I think she wished to find out if w

ich Lane was learning. The wife of the A. and P. superintendent could not be ignored by Torso, and so in spite of Isabelle'

ould ask when he

all bus

e what

and dictated letters and telegrams,-yes, it was

ccustomed to the sanctity of business reserve in her father's house: men disappeared in the morning to their work and emerged to wash and dress and be as amusing as they might for th

P.; and had received, just as he left the office, the report of a serious freight wreck at one end of his division. As he had said, a busy day! And this business of life, like an endless steel chain, had caught hold of him at once and was carrying him fast in its revolution. It was his life; he liked it. With cool head and steady

mfortably in anticipation of a pleasant dinner. Isabelle made a great point of dinner, having

all bus

e what

and dictated letters and telegrams,-yes, it was

ccustomed to the sanctity of business reserve in her father's house: men disappeared in the morning to their work and emerged to wash and dress and be as amusing as they might for th

P.; and had received, just as he left the office, the report of a serious freight wreck at one end of his division. As he had said, a busy day! And this business of life, like an endless steel chain, had caught hold of him at once and was carrying him fast in its revolution. It was his life; he liked it. With cool head and steady

anticipation of a pleasant dinner. Isabelle made a great point of dinner, having it served formally by two

he country club, a young married woman from a Western city with pretensions to social experience.

eating his soup to l

the women are, mostly. There's only one I've met s

inquired, ignoring

Falk

He's engineer at the

me from

e's a cleve

rming. She told me all

years, and she seems

rso is second-clas

thes look as if she knew what to wear,-pretty. She says there are some inte

uckian, politician, talkative sort of fellow, very popular with

-school in Kentucky-and was chased by her father and brothers, and they fired at h

ell," Lane remark

xciting!" hi

rred Isabelle's curiosity; she could not dismiss this Kentuc

daily companionship after the intimate weeks of their engagement had exhausted the topics for mere talk which they had in common. To-night, as Lane wished to learn the latest news from the wreck, they went into the town, crossing on their way to the office the court-house square. This was the centre of old

ed; "the one at the end of the table, i

ouse with a mental e

use," he

re, to hear what they were saying, seized her. A dark-haired man was leaning forward and emphasizing his remarks by tapping a wine glass with alo

d, glancing at a brick house with wooden pillars. "It'

he railroad officer, who sees in the prosperity o

smoke that hung night and day over this quarter of the city, the dull glow of the coke-ovens on the distant hi