He had been considerably older than Barbara's mother when he married her, and he had never ceased to wonder what there had been in him to win the love of a woman like her, or to regret that fate had not taken him instead of her.

Heaven knows his calling had been risky enough.

But--that was how things went sometimes--the wheat was taken and the chaff remained.
And in the morning! Tom was up before daylight and had his dishes washed and his things in order long ere the town was awake.

Then he went down to the office and waited--with the jumps.

Repeatedly he consulted his heavy gold watch, engraved: "With the admiration and gratitude of the citizens of Burlingame.