UPON A CARPET
skies in the pursuance of his own business to an atmosphere of turmoil beside which the occupation of a city appeared a trivial matter, and, in spite of Mrs. Rader's objections, made himself aide-in-chief of the situation. She was most unanxious to accept him in this rôle. She had received his first offers of assistance almost with horror. In her faded gown and her large dingy apron, her face grayed with dust, she looked at him as if he were exclusively an ornament, and at best a suspicious ornament.
There was no argument for this attitude of mind, but to take off a coat and show this self-willed creature that, if she knew what she wanted, he knew how it ought to be done. It appeared there were wardrobes to move, fastenings of windows to be renewed, shelves put up in closets. Mrs. Rader betrayed a diffidence in the situation that spoke touchingly of a woman unaccustomed to be helped. She offered her directions timidly, and once or twice he caught her looking at him as if his dexterity and his kindness were the last things she had expected of him. For a little she clung to the remnant of her formality; but one can not regulate the fastenings of windows with a man and yet maintain a distant manner. The shellacing of the back stairs went far toward reconciling her, and by the time the shelves were going up in the bedroom with all the dissen-
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