"Nonsense, Lavinia," he said. "You have the thing all topsy-turvy. It is Wade Powell who has been kind to me; it is he and not I who is good to every one. He has a heart brimful of the milk of human kindness. You have no idea, and no one has, of the good he does in a thousand little ways. He tries to hide it all; he acts as if he were ashamed of it, but there are hundreds of people in Macochee who worship him, and would be ready to die for him, if it would help him any. Don't think he has no friends! He has them by the score--of course, they are all poor; I reckon that's why they are generally unknown." "But isn't he cruel?" Marley's eyes widened in astonishment. "I mean," Lavinia said correctively, "isn't he kind of sarcastic?" "Well," Marley admitted, "he is that at times. I think he tries to hide his better qualities; I think he tries to cloak his finer nature with a rough garb. Perhaps it is because he is really so sensitive. But he is, to my mind, a truly great man. He is a sort of tribune of the people." "But, Glenn, what about his drinking?" "Well, that's the trouble," Marley said, shaking his head. "If he had let liquor alone he'd have been away up." Lavinia was silent a moment, her brow was knit in little wrinkles. "Glenn," she said presently, "I have been thinking." "Well?" "That with your influence you might reform him--out of his liking for you, don't you know?" She raised her blue eyes. He laughed outright, and then took her face between his two hands. "You dear little thing!" he said, with the patronage of a lover. Lavinia regained her dignity. "But couldn't you?" she demanded. "Why, dear heart," Marley said, "he would think it presumption. I wouldn't dare." Lavinia shook her head in the hopelessness of the reformer, and took up her tambourine frames again with a sigh. "It's a pity," she said, relinquishing the subject with the hope, "it's such a pity." "But you haven't told me what you think of the scheme." "You know, dear, that whatever you think best I think best." Marley was disappointed. "You don't seem to be very enthusiastic over the prospect," he complained. "I thought you'd be glad as I to know that I can at last make a place for myself in the world--and a home and a living for you." Lavinia looked up. "I never had any doubt of that, Glenn," she said simply.