ting his slips with
punctilious regard to duty, had been following his master's movements
with curiosity.

"Counting his investments again as usual," Mr. James murmured. "Ah!
and adding 'em up! Always at it. Oh, what a trade it must have been
once!"

Just then there appeared in the door a gentleman. He was quite shabby,
and even ragged in his dress, but he was clearly a gentleman. He was
no longer young; his shoulders were bent, and he had the unmistakable
stamp and carriage of a student.

"Guv'nor's at home," said the assistant briefly.

The visitor walked into the sanctum. He had under his arm half-a-dozen
volumes, which, without a word, he laid before Mr. Emblem, and untied
the string.

"You ought to know this book," he said without further introduction.

Mr. Emblem looked doubtfully at the visitor.

"You sold it to me twenty-five years ago," he went on, "for five
pounds."

"I did. And I remember now. You are Mr. Frank Farrar. Why, it is
twenty-five years ago!"

"I have bought no more books for twenty years and more," he replied.

"Sad--sad! Dear me--tut, tut!--bought no books? And you, Mr. Farrar,
once my best customer. And now--you do not mean to say that you are
going to sell--that you actually want to sell--this precious book?"

"I am selling, one by one, all my books," replied the other with a
sigh. "I am going down hill, Emblem, fast."

"Oh, dear, dear!" replied the bookseller. "This is very sad. One
cannot bear to think of the libraries being dispersed and sold off.
And now yours, Mr. Farrar? Really, yours? Must it be?"

"'Needs must,'" Mr. Farrar said with a sickly smile, "needs must when
the devil drives. I have parted with half my books already. But I
thought you might like to have this set, because they were once your
own."

"So I should"--Mr. Emblem laid a loving hand upon the volumes--"so I
should, Mr. Farrar, but not from you; not from you, sir. Why, you were
almost my best customer--I think almost my very best--thirty years
ago, when my trade was better than it is now. Yes, you gave me five
pounds--or was it five pounds ten?--for this very work. And it is
worth twelve pounds now--I assure you it is worth twelve pounds, if it
is worth a penny."

"Will you give me ten pounds for it, then?" cried the other eagerly;
"I want the money badly."

"No, I can't; but I will send you to a man who can and will. I do not
speculate now; I never go to auctions. I am old, you see. Besides, I
am p