ut, he called after me that he wanted to come to my
office the next day to talk to me about something, to which I acceded.
Littell delayed a moment for a last word with him, and then joined Van
Bult and myself on the sidewalk and we walked together toward Fifth
Avenue.

Van Bult was the first to speak:

"What is the matter with White?" he said; "he does not seem like
himself."

"He has probably some trifling matter on his mind," I suggested, "the
seriousness of which he morbidly exaggerates. He is a nervous fellow
anyhow, and has several times hinted to me that he wanted to make a
confidant of me about something. I am inclined to believe," I continued,
expressing a thought I had entertained before, "that he feels he has
been guilty of an injustice to his cousin, Winters, in taking the bulk
of his uncle's fortune, and suffers some remorse when he sees the poor
fellow going to the bad. For that matter, however," I concluded, "he
would have gone there anyhow, and all the faster for a little money."

"It may be there is a woman in the case," said Littell; "it seems to me
I have heard of an entanglement of some sort."

"So they say," I answered, "but I don't see why an affair of that sort
should give him cause for much worry."

"Well, whatever it is," said Van Bult, "he had better pull himself
together and go away for a change. One of you fellows suggest it to him,
you know him better than I do. He may give you an opportunity
to-morrow, Dallas," he continued, "if he goes to see you as he said he
would."

By this time we had reached Fifth Avenue, where our ways separated, Van
Bult living on Washington Square, Littell at the Terrace Hotel, at Fifth
Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, and I, as I have said, at the Crescent
Club, on Madison Square. We stood, however, talking for a few minutes,
and while doing so Benton passed us, going east toward Broadway. Van
Bult stopped him to ask how his master was. The man said he had
dismissed him soon after we left, and had thrown himself down on the
sofa without undressing, and had apparently gone to sleep.

Littell asked if Davis was still with him, and the man replied, "No";
that "Mr. Davis had been leaving at the same time." He then bade us
good-night, and went on.

Van Bult here left us, and Littell and I walked as far as Madison Square
together, where I crossed over and Littell continued on.

As I entered the club and went up to my room, it was still a little
before one o'c