stings was ticketed and
checked for Chicago under the escort of one of the firm who was going
thither, and the young ladies were quietly domiciled in their new and
pleasant room, Pliny and Theodore came to the first breathing place they
had found for many a day, and felt absolutely forlorn and disconsolate.
They were together in the store, the last clerk had departed, and their
loneliness only served to add to their sense of gloom.

"Well," said Pliny, closing the ledger with a heavy sigh, "if we had a
local habitation we'd go to it now, wouldn't we?"

"Probably," answered Theodore, drumming on the counter with his fingers.
"Where _are_ we going to live, Pliny, anyway?"

"More than I know," was Pliny's gloomy answer. "In the street for all I
seem to care just at present."

And then the office door clicked behind them, and Mr. Stephens appeared.

"I thought you were gone, sir," said Pliny, rising in surprise.

"No, I was waiting your movements. Come, young gentlemen, I want you
both to come home with me. There is no use in remonstrating, my boy," he
added, laying his hand on Theodore's shoulder, as the latter would have
spoken. "I have had your and Pliny's rooms ready for you this week past,
and have only waited until you were at leisure to take possession. I
keep bachelor's hall, you know, and if ever a man needed something new
and fresh about him I do. So do as I want you to for once, just to see
how it will seem."

There was much talk about the matter, argument and counter argument; but
in the end Mr. Stephens prevailed, as in reality he generally did, when
he set his heart upon a thing, despite his statements that Theodore kept
him under complete control. Before another week closed the two young men
were cozily settled in their new quarters, and really feeling as much at
home as though half their lives had been spent there.

There was one other matter which came to Theodore as a source of great
satisfaction.

"Mallery," Mr. Stephens had said to him one morning when they were quite
alone in the private office, "have you any special interest in the
Hastings' place?"

Theodore hesitated a little, and then answered frankly enough:

"Yes, sir, I certainly have. There are many associations connected with
that house that will always endear it to me."

"Then you may be interested to know that I have become the purchaser of
it; and if at any time, for any reason, you should wish to make special
disposition of it