"I wouldn't exchange my little girl's crown of gold for all the yellow coin of the millionaires we shall see to-night."
"And I wouldn't give the father with the loving heart and stainless name for the Kingdom of Mammon."
"That's a beautiful saying, my own, I shall not forget it; and now I'll hurry."
He ate a hasty meal, dressed in thirty minutes, and at nine o'clock led Harriet to the side entrance of Bivens's great house on the Drive.
He was in fine spirits. The reaction from the tension of a pitiful tragedy of sin and shame he had witnessed in the afternoon had lifted him to spiritual heights. For the life of him he couldn't look at his own troubles seriously. They seemed trivial in a world of such shadows as that which fell across his path from behind those iron bars. He rejoiced again that he had made up his mind to live the life of faith and good fellowship with all men, including the little swarthy master of the palace he was about to enter.
And so with light heart he stepped through the door which the soft white hand of Death opened. How could he know?
CHAPTER XVII
SOME INSIDE FACTS
As Stuart dressed for Nan's party he brooded over his new relation to his old sweetheart with increasing pleasure. She had begun to tease him with gentle raillery about his tragic exaggeration of the treachery of her betrayal, and laughingly promised to make it all up by introducing him to a group of the richest and most beautiful girls in New York. He could take his choice under her wise guidance. She promised to begin his course of instruction to-night.