particular admiration for one's own conduct. Of all
states of mind the complacent suavity resulting from
self-esteem is, perhaps, the most pleasantly apparent
in one's attitude to others; and no sooner had Kemper
assured himself that he had made an unusual sacrifice
for Laura than he was rewarded by the overwhelming
conviction that she was more than worth it all. In
some way peculiar to the emotions her value in-
creased in direct relation to the amount of pleasure
he told himself he had given up for her sake.

When at last he had freed himself from a few
financial worries he had lingered to attend to, and
was hurrying toward her in the night express which
left New York, he assured himself that now for the
first time he was comfortably settled in a state which
might be reasonably expected to endure. The care-
less first impulse of his affection would wane, he knew
--it were as useless to regret the inevitable passing
of the spring--but beyond this was it not possible that
Laura might hold his interest by qualities more per-
manent than any transient exaltation of the emotions?
He thought of the soul in her face rather than of the
mere changing accident of form--of the smile which
moved like an edge of light across her eyes and lips--
and this rare spiritual quality in her appearance
appealed to him at the instant as vividly as it had
done on the first day he saw her. This charm of
strangeness had worn with him as nothing in the
domain of the sensations had worn in his life before.

In the smoking car, when he entered it a little
later, he found a man named Barclay, whom he saw
sometimes at his club; and they sat talking together
until long after midnight. Barclay was a keen,

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