mportant conversation followed, when Hallet, turning to Cragin,
asked:

'Are all the letters written for tomorrow's steamers?'

'Yes,' said Cragin, rising; 'and I believe I'll leave you two together.
As you've not spoken for ten years, you must have a good deal to say.
Come, David,' he called out, as he drew on his outside coat, 'let's go.'

'No, don't take David,' I exclaimed; 'I want to talk with the old
gentleman.'

'But you can see him to-morrow.'

'No, I return in the morning.'

'Well, David, I'll tell Alice you'll be home by nine.'

'Oh, that's it,' I said, laughing. 'It's Alice who makes you leave so
early on steamer night.'

'Yes, _sir_; Alice that _is_, and Mrs. Augustus Cragin that is _to
be_--when I get a new set of teeth. Good night,' and saying this, he
took up his cane, and left the office.

When he was gone, Hallet said to me:

'Do you desire to have David a witness to our conversation?'

'I want him to be a _party_ to it. We can come to no arrangement without
his cooperation.'

Hallet asked the bookkeeper in. When he was seated, I said:

'Well, Mr. Hallet, what do you propose to do for your son?'

'To treat him as I do my other children. Do all but acknowledge him.
That would injure _him_.'

'That is not important. But please be explicit as to what you will do.'

'David tells me that his inclinations tend to business, and that you
have meant to take him into your office. I will take him into _mine_,
and when he is twenty-one, if he has conducted himself properly, I will
give him an interest.'

'I shall be satisfied with no _contingent_ arrangement, sir. I know
Frank will prove worthy of the position.'

'Very well; then I will agree definitely to make him a partner when he
is of age.'

'Well, Mr. Hallet, if Frank will consent to come, I will agree to that
with certain conditions. I told his mother, when she was dying, that I
would consider him my own child; therefore I cannot give up the control
of him. He must regard me and depend on me as he does now. Again, I
cannot let him come here, and have no home whose influence shall protect
him from the temptations which beset young men in a large city. David
must take him into his family, and treat him as he treated me when I was
a boy, and--this must be reduced to writing.'

Hallet showed some emotion when I spoke of Frank's mother, but his face
soon assumed its usual expression, and he promptly replied:

'I will agree to all that, b