l not have him collared by a constable, and commit his innocent
pallor to the common jail? And upon what ground could you procure such a
thing to be done?--a vagrant, is he? What! he a vagrant, a wanderer, who
refuses to budge? It is because he will _not_ be a vagrant, then, that
you seek to count him _as_ a vagrant. That is too absurd. No visible
means of support: there I have him. Wrong again: for indubitably he
_does_ support himself, and that is the only unanswerable proof that any
man can show of his possessing the means so to do. No more, then. Since
he will not quit me, I must quit him. I will change my offices; I will
move elsewhere, and give him fair notice, that if I find him on my new
premises I will then proceed against him as a common trespasser.

Acting accordingly, next day I thus addressed him: "I find these
chambers too far from the City Hall; the air is unwholesome. In a word,
I propose to remove my offices next week, and shall no longer require
your services. I tell you this now, in order that you may seek another
place."

He made no reply, and nothing more was said.

On the appointed day I engaged carts and men, proceeded to my chambers,
and, having but little furniture, everything was removed in a few hours.
Throughout, the scrivener remained standing behind the screen, which I
directed to be removed the last thing. It was withdrawn; and, being
folded up like a huge folio, left him the motionless occupant of a naked
room. I stood in the entry watching him a moment, while something from
within me upbraided me.

I re-entered, with my hand in my pocket--and--and my heart in my mouth.

"Good-by, Bartleby; I am going--good-by, and God some way bless you; and
take that," slipping something in his hand. But it dropped upon the
floor, and then--strange to say--I tore myself from him whom I had so
longed to be rid of.

Established in my new quarters, for a day or two I kept the door locked,
and started at every footfall in the passages. When I returned to my
rooms, after any little absence, I would pause at the threshold for an
instant, and attentively listen, ere applying my key. But these fears
were needless. Bartleby never came nigh me.

I thought all was going well, when a perturbed-looking stranger visited
me, inquiring whether I was the person who had recently occupied rooms
at No. ---- Wall street.

Full of forebodings, I replied that I was.

"Then, sir," said the stranger, who proved a lawy