"You'll do it?"

"You shall see."

With a firm step and an erectness of fine carriage which surprised
the weak, self-centred woman who was watching him, he stepped, now, to
the door, and, opening it, called loudly:

"Come, sir."

For a moment, after he had reached it, he stopped to listen, for from
the lower hallway came the sounds of altercation. He waited till a
curse or two had died away, until the thudding of a heavy body on the
boards was heard. It merely meant a fight, and fights were not
uncommon in the tenement. He stepped out into the hall. "Come, sir,"
he called into the darkness.

A bounding step upon the stair responded and an instant later John
entered, anxious faced and fixing his entreating eyes immovably upon
his mother. He was a bit dishevelled.

"Excuse me," he said nervously. "I had to settle with Moresco. He was
the officer you had. I'll have to pay a little fine, I guess; but it
was worth it. What have you--decided, mother?"

"Your mother," Kreutzer said, before she had a chance to speak, "has
given her consent."

John went to her with beaming face and caught her hands. "You're a
brick, mother." Gaily he caught her in his arms.