le of railroad travel, and the crowd of
lookers on, seemed to dispel all remembrance of Sunday, and the whole
afternoon passed in this way, in what then seemed real enjoyment.

It was eleven o'clock in the evening when, heated and dizzy from the
wine they had drunk, Arthur and Charley took their seats in the cars for
home; with Mr. Clinton heavily reclining between them. They were a noisy
trio, though an experienced eye might have detected readily that Clinton
pretended to be much more intoxicated than he really was. When the cars
arrived at St. Joseph-street he alighted, bidding his two friends a
hearty good night, and saying, as he shook Arthur's hand:

"Hope to see you soon again, Pratt, [hic]--from this day for [hic] ward,
consider me one of you."

And, with a stagger which threatened a fall, he left the cars, and
disappeared round the corner. As he did so, he drew a ponderous key from
his pocket, and holding it up between his eye and an adjacent lamp,
regarded it closely, then burst into a laugh: "I'll have some fun with
this yet, I reckon; I'll teach the governor to forbid my having any of
the keys. By the gods! I'll bring him round with this, or die in the
attempt," soliloquized Mr. Clinton, swinging the key between his thumb
and finger.

"By-the-by," he added, suddenly thrusting it deep into a side-pocket,
"I'll just stroll down Chartres-street, and see what the boys'll do when
they find it out."

Mr. Clinton was evidently perfectly sober.

Whistling a tune thoughtfully, as he went, he reached Camp-street; when,
taking the shady side, he struck into a run, which pace he kept up until
he had crossed Canal, then he assumed a slow, careless walk; and as the
moon had now risen, the lamps had been put out, and one side of
Chartres-street lay in deep shadow.

To this side he kept, and when he had arrived nearly opposite Delancey's
store, he stepped back into an archway, and remained quiet.

In a few moments he heard the voices of his late companions, and saw
them coming down the other side of the street, leaning upon each other,
and both evidently fully affected by the liquor they had imbibed.

As Charley gained the door, he sustained himself by holding with his
left hand upon the door-post, while with the right he applied a small
steel key to the key-hole.

"Why the devil don't it fit? Lend a hand here, Pratt, and see what you
can do."

Arthur had seated himself upon the step, and sat with his head leani