He himself turned and went in the direction of the cathedral.
As he walked slowly along, one thing haunted him remorsefully--the
upturned face of the lad and the look in his eyes as he asked the
question which brought out the secret desire of a life: "Do you know how
boys get into the cathedral choir school?" Then the blight of
disappointment when there was no answer.
The man walked thoughtfully on, seemingly as one who was turning over
and over in his mind some difficult, delicate matter, looking at it on
all sides and in every light, as he must do.
Finally he quickened his pace as though having decided what ought to be
done. He looked the happier for his decision.
III
That night in an attic-like room of an old building opposite Morningside
Park a tiny supper-table for two stood ready in the middle of the floor;
the supper itself, the entire meal, was spread. There is a victory which
human nature in thousands of lives daily wins over want, that though it
cannot drive poverty from the scene, it can hide its desolation by the
genius of choice and of touch. A battle of that brave and desperate kind
had been won in this garret. Lacking every luxury, it had the charm of
tasteful bareness, of exquisite penury. The supper-table of cheap wood
roughly carpentered was hidden under a piece of fine long-used
table-linen; into the gleaming damask were wrought clusters of
snowballs.
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