"My wife has been dressing a tree for the children," he said simply. He faced Livingstone and offered him a chair. He stiffened as he did so. He was evidently prepared for the worst. Livingstone sat down. It was an awkward moment. Livingstone broke the ice. "Mr. Clark, I have come to ask you a favor--a great favor--" Clark's eyes opened wide and his lips even parted slightly in his astonishment. "--I want you to lend me your little girl--the little girl I saw in the office this afternoon." Clark's expression was so puzzled that Livingstone thought he had not understood him. "'The Princess with the Golden Locks,'" he explained. "Mr. Livingstone!--I--I don't understand." He looked dazed. Livingstone broke out suddenly: "Clark, I have been a brute, a cursed brute!" "Oh! Mr. Liv--!" With a gesture of sharp dissent Livingstone cut him short. "It is no use to deny it, Clark,--I have--I have!--I have been a brute for years and I have just awakened to the fact!" He spoke in bitter, impatient accusation. "I have been a brute for years and I have just realized it." The face of the other had softened. "Oh, no, Mr. Livingstone, not that. You have always been just--and--just;" he protested kindly. "You have always--" --"Been a brute," insisted Livingstone, "a blind, cursed, selfish, thoughtless--" "You are not well, Mr. Livingstone," urged Clark, looking greatly disturbed. "Your servant, James, said you were not well this evening when I called. I wanted to go in to see you, but he would not permit me. He said that you had given positive orders that you would not see--" "I was not well," assented Livingstone. "I was suffering from blindness. But I am better, Clark, better. I can see now--a little." He controlled himself and spoke quietly. "I want you to lend me your little girl for--" He broke off suddenly. "How many children have you, Clark?" he asked, gently. "Eight," said the old clerk. "But I haven't one I could spare, Mr. Livingstone." "Only for a little while, Clark?" urged the other; "only for a little while.--Wait, and let me tell you what I want with her and why I want her, and you will--For a little while?" he pleaded. He started and told his story and Clark sat and listened, at first with a set face, then with a wondering face, and then with a face deeply moved, as Livingstone, under his warming sympathy, opened his heart to him as a dying man might to his last confessor. "--And now will you lend her to me, Clark, for just a little while to-night and to-morrow?" he pleaded in conclusion. Clark rose to his feet. "I will see what I can do with her, Mr. Livingstone," he said, gravely. "She is not very friendly to you, I am sorry to say--I don't know why." Livingstone thought he knew. "Of course, you would not want me to compel her to go with you?" "Of course not," said Livingstone. CHAPTER XI