r them alone, but now he realized the pettiness of that position.
With a few unmortgaged dollars in his pocket, he was instantly one of
them. He could stride in and use the quiet luxury of the place as his
own.

For half an hour then, he browsed about the sun-lit shop, selecting
here and there bits with which to brighten his room during the week.
He picked out an engraving or two, several English prints which seemed
to welcome him like old friends, and a marine in water color because of
the golden blue in it. His bill exceeded that of the department
stores, and Bobby confidently delivered himself of the opinion that he
had been soaked, "good and plenty."

From here Donaldson began an extravagant course down Fifth Avenue that
left the boy, who watched him closely every time he paid his bill,
convinced that he had on his hands nothing short of an Arabian Prince
such as his sister had told him of when he had thought her fooling.
They wandered from book store to art store, to Tiffany's, to an antique
shop back to another book store and then to where in his lean days he
had seen a bit of Dresden that brought comfort to him through its
dainty beauty. He took for his own now all the old familiar friends
who had done what they could through store windows to brighten those
days. They should be a part of him; share his week with him. There
was that old hammered copper tray which in the sun glowed like a
cooling ember; there was that hand-illumined volume of Keats which he
had so long craved; there was that vase of Cloisonne, that quaint piece
of ivory browned with age, that old pewter mug reflecting the burden of
its years in its sober surface. All these things he had long ago known
as his own, and now he came to claim them.

"Mine, all mine!" he exclaimed to the boy. "And was n't it decent of
them to wait for me?"

"They was waitin' for you all right," agreed Bobby. "They seen you
comin'. They waits fer the easy marks."

"Yes," returned Donaldson, ignoring the latter's sarcasm. "They saw me
coming when yet I was a great way off. They knew me, so they waited.
I told them all to wait and some day I would come to them."

"D' yuh mean that ivory monkey waited?"

"For nearly a year."

Bobby did not reply, but his respect for Donaldson fell several degrees.

"There is one thing more, boy," exclaimed Donaldson; "I need flowers."

He ordered sent to his room two dozen rich lipped roses, a half dozen
potted plants,