She looked at him steadily again.

"What do you want?" was his inquiry.

"Where do you live?"

"I have no bed. I am in a lawyer's office. I can't afford a
boarding-house just now, and I sleep on the office floor."

"How do you like that?" she asked.

"I don't like it."

"Then why do you stay there?"

"Where else would I sleep? I have only so much a week."

"Would you like to stay here to-night?"

"Maybe. This is better than the office floor; at least I imagine it
is."

The curtains parted and there was a heavy step upon the floor. A man
came in. He stopped and looked at the couple grimly. He was a big man
whose cheeks had jowls and whose eyes were red. He had the air of a
bully. He seemed perfectly at ease and conscious of his status, and
the woman started, then looked up half anxiously and half defiantly.
The man spoke first: