Jack descended Peter's stairs one step at a time, Each seemed to plunge him the deeper into some pit of despair. Before he reached the bottom he began to realize the futility of his efforts. He began to realize, too, that both he and Ruth had been swept off their feet by their emotions. MacFarlane, the elder Breen, and now Peter, had all either openly condemned his course or had given it scant encouragement. There was nothing to go new but go home and tell Ruth. Then, after the funeral was over, he would have another talk with MacFarlane. He had reached the cool air of the street, and stood hesitating whether to cross the Square on his way to the ferry, or to turn down the avenue, when the door of Isaac Cohen's shop opened, and the little tailor put out his head. “I have been waiting for you.” he said in a measured voice. “Come inside.” Jack was about to tell him that he must catch a train, when something in the tailor's manner and the earnestness with which he spoke, made the young fellow alter his mind and follow him. The little man led the way through the now darkened and empty shop, lighted by one gas jet--past the long cutting counter flanked by shelves bearing rolls of cloth and paper patterns, around the octagon stove where the irons were still warm, and through the small door which led into his private room. There he turned up a reading lamp, its light softened by a green shade, and motioning Jack to a seat, said abruptly, but politely--more as a request than a demand: “I have a question to ask you, and you will please tell me the truth. How much money do you want, and what do you want it for?” Jack bit his lip. He wanted money, and he wanted it badly, but the tailor had no right to pry into his private affairs--certainly not in this way. “Well, that was something I was talking to Uncle Peter about,” he rejoined stiffly. “I suppose you must have overheard.” “Yes, I did. Go on--how much money do you want, and what do you want it for?” “But, Mr. Cohen, I don't think I ought to bother you with my troubles. They wouldn't interest you.” “Now, my dear young man, you will please not misunderstand me. You are very intelligent, and you are very honest, and you always say what is in your heart; I have heard you do it many times. Now say it to me.” There was no mistaking the tailor's earnestness. It evidently was not mere curiosity which prompted him. It was something else. Jack wondered vaguely if the Jew wanted to turn money-lender at a big percentage. “Why do you want to know?” he asked; more to gain time to fathom his purpose than with any intention of giving him the facts. Isaac went to his desk, opened with great deliberation an ebony box, took out two cigars, offered one to Jack, leaned over the lamp until his own was alight, and took the chair opposite Jack's. All this time Jack sat watching him as a child does a necromancer, wondering what he meant to do next.