She felt of my arm. It's a big arm. Then she smiled. It was the last time she mentioned the subject. We didn't say anything to the neighbors until the furniture began to go out. Then the women flocked in and Ruth was hard pressed to keep our secret. I sat upstairs and chuckled as I heard her replies. She says it's the only time I ever failed to stand by her, but it didn't seem to me like anything but a joke. "We shall want to keep track of you," said little Mrs. Grover. "Where shall we address you?" "Oh, I can't tell," answered Ruth, truthfully enough. "Are you going far?" "Yes. Oh--a long, long way." That was true enough too. We couldn't have gone farther out of their lives if we'd sailed for Australia. And so they kept it up. That night we made a round of the houses and everyone was very much surprised and very much grieved and very curious. To all their inquiries, I made the same reply; that I was going to emigrate. Some of them looked wistful. "Jove," said Brown, who was with the insurance company, "but I wish I had the nerve to do that. I suppose you're going west?" "We're going west first," I answered. The road to the station was almost due west. "They say there are great chances out in that country," he said. "It isn't so overcrowded as here." "I don't know about that," I answered, "but there are chances enough." Some of the women cried and all the men shook hands cordially and wished us good luck. But it didn't mean much to me. The time I needed their handshakes was gone. I learned later that as a result of our secrecy I was variously credited with having lost my reason with my job; with having inherited a fortune, with having gambled in the market, with, thrown in for good measure, a darker hint about having misappropriated funds of the United Woollen. But somehow their nastiest gossip did not disturb me. It had no power to harm either me or mine. I was already beyond their reach. Before I left I wished them all Godspeed on the dainty journey they were making in their cockleshell. Then so far as they were concerned I dropped off into the sea with my wife and boy. CHAPTER V WE PROSPECT We were lucky in getting into a new tenement and lucky in securing the top floor. This gave us easy access to the flat roof five stories above the street. From here we not only had a magnificent view of the harbor, but even on the hottest days felt something of a sea breeze. Coming down here in June we appreciated that before the summer was over.