tting to his uncle
that he feared he had a touch of the gout. He was subject to it,
confound it. Beastly thing, gout. But you can't live on lobster and
terrapin and champagne without paying the price.

His uncle, a crusty and unimpressionable bachelor, was not long in
getting the truth out of him. To Harvey's unbounded surprise the old
photographer sympathised with him. Instead of kicking him out he took
him to his bosom, so to speak, and commiserated with him.

"I feel just as sorry for a married man, Harvey," said he, "as I do
for a half-starved dog. I'm always going out of my way to feed some of
these cast-off dogs around town, so why shouldn't I do the same for a
poor devil of a husband? I'll make you comfortable until you get into
Davis', but don't you ever let on to these damned women that you're a
failure, or that you're strapped, or that that measly little wife of
yours gave you the sack. No, sir! Remember who you are. You are my
nephew. I won't say as I'm proud of you, but, by thunder! I don't want
anybody in Blakeville to know that I'm ashamed of you. If I feel that
way about you, it's my own secret and it's nobody's business. So you
just put on a bold front and nobody need know. You can be quite sure
I won't tell on you, to have people saying that my poor dead sister's
boy wasn't good enough for Ell Barkley or any other woman that ever
lived.

"But it's a lesson to you. Don't--for God's sake, don't--ever let
another one of 'em get her claws on you! Here's ten dollars. Go out
and buy some ten-cent cigars at Rumley's, and smoke 'em where
everybody can see you. Ten-centers, mind you; not two-fers, the kind I
smoke. And get a new pair of shoes at Higgs'. And invite me to eat
a--an expensive meal at the St. Nicholas. It can't cost more'n a
dollar, no matter how much we order, but you can ask for lobster and
terrapin, and raise thunder because they haven't got 'em, whatever
they are. Then in a couple of days you can say you're going to help me
out during the busy season, soliciting orders for crayon portraits.
I'll board and lodge you here and give you four dollars a week to
splurge on. The only thing I ask in return is that you'll tell people
I'm a smart man for never having married. That's all!"

You may be quite sure that Harvey took to the place as a duck takes
to water. Inside of a week after his arrival--or, properly speaking,
his appearance in Blakeville, for you couldn't connect the two on
account of t