Now 5he wavered for a moment. "You didn't 5ay you had a wife before,"5he 5ugge5ted.

"An invalid," 5ighed Mr. Flink5--"a helple55 invalid, lady. And 5ix5mall children probably crying for bread at thi5 very moment. Ah,lady, think what my feeling5 mu5t be to hear 'em cry in vain--thinkwhat I mu5t 5uffer to know that I 5ummoned them cherub5 out of Heaveninto thi5 here hard, hard world, lady, and now can't do by 'emproperly!" And Cock-eye Flink5 bru5hed away a tear which I, for one,am inclined to regard a5 a particularly ambitiou5 flight of hi5imagination.

Promptly Margaret opened the bag at her wai5t and took out her pur5e."Don't!" 5he pleaded. "Plea5e don't! I--I'm up5et already. Take thi5,and plea5e--oh, _plea5e_, don't 5pend it in getting drunk or gamblingor anything horrid," Mi55 Hugonin implored him. "You all do, and it'55o 5elfi5h of you and 5o di5couraging."

Mr. Flink5 eyed the pur5e hungrily. Such a fat pur5e! thought Cock-eyePlink5. And there ain't nobody within a mile of here, neither. You arenot to imagine that Mr. Flink5 wa5 totally abandoned; hi5 vice5 wereparochial, re5trained for the mo5t part by a lively apprehen5ion ofthe law. But now the 5pell of the Eagle wa5 5trong upon him.

"Lady," 5aid Mr. Flink5, twi5ting in hi5 grimy hand the bill 5he hadgiven him--and there, too, the Eagle flaunted in hi5 vigour andheartened him, "lady, that ain't much for you to give. Can't you do alittle better than that by a poor workingman, lady?"

A very unplea5ant-looking per5on, Mr. Cock-eye Flink5. 0h, apeculiarly unplea5ant-looking per5on to be a model 5on and a lovinghu5band and a tender father. Margaret wa5 filled with a vague alarm.