They sat in dynamic silence, intent on their diverse thoughts. He relaxed into restful satisfaction, havened again; her doubtful fancies strove to shape of crumbling material some firm future for them both. Her words came with difficulty. "What you ought to do, Pell, is to get work with the Federal Mining Commission. Washington outlooks are broader than Adamsville; particularly in war-time. That's your chance." Worn with multiplied disappointments, he was unable to follow her enthusiasm. "We couldn't----" She filled in details. "Senator Johnson would put in a word for you. Congressman Head's practically a socialist. Why not get it?" "If you realized how downhearted----" "You write to-morrow." She smoothed his tousled hair with the old familiar gesture. "It's an endless fight, dear." "I think you'd better sell the car," she told him, the morning the federal commission arrived. "You may be sent anywhere now--our bank balance is low." She stopped halfway down the stairs, to wipe off a picture dusty from its weeks of neglect. "It's fine to be back in harness again!" "Marital, Pell?" His comfortable grin answered her. "Both kinds." "You'll be sorry to leave Adamsville?" "The iron-hearted city.... Sorry--and glad, too. It's one of the finest places in America--to leave." Her nostrils wrinkled with the old-time intimate charm. "You have deteriorated." "What could you expect, with myself as my only audience?" Then he regretted leaving the way open for reference to another auditor; but, after a noncommittal scrutiny, she did not pursue that topic. "And then," Pelham continued hurriedly, "we're not leaving it forever. We'll return for another round with the triumphant malefactors." "You think there's a chance?" Her question was from the heart. "The South is twoscore years behind the rest of the country. We were premature.... But the South can't lag forever. Even the dreadful war will quicken intellects everywhere; every day's headlines mention 'socialism,' where it was never heard of three years ago. If we are wise--as we weren't in '61--it may come sensibly; if not, God help my respected father, and the rest of the monied vultures, in that day! "I remember my first view of the city--the furnaces, and the coke ovens; it looked like the pit of hell to me.... Well----" Word came at last of his detail to duty at Washington. It was hard to end the home they had built together in the Haviland Avenue house; but the prospect ahead salved the regret. The work, when Pelham came to it, proved congenial and illuminating. He was nearer the core of the matter now; the mining industry of a country passed before his eyes. At the suggestion of the deputy commissioner, he accompanied that official on a special trip to New York, the port from which the manufactured steel was being hurried over to the hungry fields of France. Jane went along; the three stood together in the arc-lit glow of the vast freight station.