ndy in that house nor in our firm, I can tell you, sir."

"Good for you, Tommy--stand up for your principles. Well, what came next
after you were all toasted and ice-watered? Is Mrs. Hastings, senior, in
town? Dear me, how long is it since she went away?"

"It's pretty near three years. No, she isn't in town. She's in feeble
health, and they're going out there to Chicago to see her, the whole
tribe of them. They take the four o'clock Express, and we're all going
to the cars with them, about a dozen carriages. It's time they were on
hand, too. I had to come down to the store after a package that was left
here, and there they are this minute; and so you see, sir, you can't see
either Mr. Stephens or Mr. Mallery in a twinkling. I ride in the eighth
carriage." And at this point Tommy's shining boots bounded away.

* * * * *

After the visit to Chicago was concluded, interspersed by several
pleasant side trips, the bridal party separated one bright June morning
at the Cleveland depot, Pliny and his wife preparing to settle down in
their new home, while Mr. and Mrs. Mallery went on to New York. Theodore
had been there perhaps a dozen times since he took that first
surreptitious trip with Mr. Hastings, but in these visits he had always
been a hurried business man, with little leisure or taste for
retrospect. Now, however, it was different, and traversing the streets
with his wife leaning on his arm, he had a fancy for going backward, and
painting pictures from the past for her amusement. The hotel to which he
had escorted Mr. Hastings on that day had advanced with the advancing
tide, and was just now in the very zenith of its prosperity. Thither he
found his way, and led Dora up the broad steps and down the splendid
halls, and finally booked his name, "Theodore S. Mallery and wife," and
tried in vain, while he issued his orders with the air of one long
accustomed to the giving of orders, to conceive of himself and that
ridiculous little wretch who squeezed in among the gentlemen on that
long ago morning to discover, if perchance he could, what his traveling
companion's name might be, as one and the same.

"Now, I am going to show you some of the wretchedness that abounds in
this elegant city," he said to his wife one morning as he dismissed the
carriage after an hour's exciting drive, and proposed a walk. "It is a
remarkable city in that respect. I am never struck with the two extremes
of hum