“Won't you come to-night?” Peter asked laughing. “Perhaps we can both reach the high point some day when we have earned the right to be poor.”

“That's a higher point than I dream of, Peter. I can't help but think what a nest you've got into. Of course, I mean with Fallows and his kind—”

“An eagle's nest.”

“But the eaglets are starving.”

“Heretofore the job has been served. Come along with me and meet Duke Fallows again—”

“No. I must go back to the wire for the present. Boylan would be shocked, too. By the way, I've got a bid in for you with General Kohlvihr. Boylan is to help me put it through, of course. The more decorated they are the more they fall for Boylan. There's a chance that you'll start south with a column within two days. So you'd better get at that encyclopedia stuff—”

“Yes, I'll attend to that.”

Peter left him smiling, and turned his steps across the Square, into a narrow street of the poor quarter, and on toward a little room and a low lamp, where a woman's hands sewed magically as she waited.