Janet went away not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. A good cry would not have come amiss; and yet, as she counted up the fortunes of the last two days, she could not help observing that her mishaps had trod on one another’s heels in a procession that was well-nigh comic. Claude’s letter and flight, Cornelia’s bad temper, her own involuntary rudeness to Robert, the crop of errors in the playwright’s manuscript, Mrs. Grey’s impertinences, and the crowning loss of her position—here was a downpour of calamities amounting to a regular deluge! And not a single ray of sunshine in sight, either. On second thoughts, she had to admit that this statement was not strictly true. For Robert would probably be home, and what an immense relief it would be to tell him all that had happened to her! At the same time she would be able to obliterate the effect of yesterday’s rudeness. For she guessed that Robert’s feelings had been deeply hurt by her gesture of withdrawal from him. But she felt no doubt of her power to conciliate him or to conquer his just resentment. In fact, she had so little doubt of this power that, the nearer home she got, the more she looked forward to the prospect of exercising it. Ah, yes, it would be simple and sweet to make up with Robert, and they should spend a very jolly afternoon together, working over sundry papers and planning new activities for the firm of Barr & Lloyd. And (such is the peremptory, indomitable influence of the heart!), her spirits rose again. In the full flush of agreeable anticipation, she began to turn the day’s adventures over in her mind. As she did so, she gave them a humorous twist, for she meant to relate them to Robert entertainingly, in return for his expected concession to her. *CHAPTER NINETEEN* *I* On reaching her own street, Janet had to plough her way to the Lorillard tenements through shoals of children that scampered about as derelict as herself. She felt the keenest pity for these little tots who came from the very immodel tenements not far away, where five or even eight people existed in a single room, defying the decencies of life by day and mocking them by night in order to live up to "the highest standard of living" in the world. She did not expect Robert until two o’clock, when he regularly returned from the League of Guildsmen. In the interval she looked, as a matter of course, under Cornelia’s alarm clock, where the four friends were in the habit of putting brief communications for one another. She found the following note addressed to her in Robert’s painstaking hand: Dear Janet: Forgive me for not being on hand this afternoon. During the next few days, and perhaps longer, I shall be in Pittsburgh. For some time, therefore, the whole burden of the firm of Barr & Lloyd will have to rest on the shoulders of one partner. Lucky that this partner is so thoroughly staunch and dependable, isn’t it?