thoughtfully. The Young Husband leaned up against the side of the water tank, his hands in his pockets. "Say, Mooney, is that right about Blanche Devine's having bought the house on the corner?" 

 "You're the fourth man that's been in to ask me that this evening. I'm expecting the rest of the block before bedtime. She bought it all right." 

 The Young Husband flushed and kicked at a piece of coal with the toe of his boot. 

 "Well, it's a darned shame!" he began hotly.  "Jen was ready to cry at supper. This'll be a fine neighborhood for Snooky to grow up in! What's a woman like that want to come into a respectable street for, anyway? I own my home and pay my taxes—" 

 Alderman Mooney looked up. 

 "So does she," he interrupted.  "She's going to improve the place—paint it, and put in a cellar and a furnace, and build a porch, and lay a cement walk all round." 

 The Young Husband took his hands out of his pockets in order to emphasize his remarks with gestures. 

 "What's that got to do with it? I don't care if she puts in diamonds for windows and sets out Italian gardens and a terrace with peacocks on it. You're the alderman of this ward, aren't you? Well, it was up to you to keep her out of this block! You could have fixed it with an injunction or something. I'm going to get up a petition—that's what I'm going——" 

 Alderman Mooney closed the furnace door with a bang that drowned the rest of the threat. He turned the draft in a pipe overhead and brushed his sooty palms briskly together like one who would put an end to a profitless conversation. 

 "She's bought the house," he said mildly, "and paid for it. And it's hers. She's got a right to live in this neighborhood as long as she acts respectable." 

 The Very Young Husband laughed. 

 "She won't last! They never do." 

 Alderman Mooney had taken his pipe out of his mouth and was rubbing his thumb over the smooth bowl, looking down at it with unseeing eyes. On his face was a queer look—the look of one who is embarrassed because he is about to say something honest. 

 "Look here! I want to tell you something:  I happened to be up in the mayor's office the day Blanche signed for the 

 Prev. P 3/117 next