voice of Eternity: "Seven
days more to live!"

He sank into a reverie for a moment. He was roused by the sounding of
the noon whistle. What, noon already? So swiftly had the time gone!
He turned to his desk bewildered and picked up his letters, glanced
over them hurriedly, and gave directions for the answers of some of
them to his impatient clerk, who had been wondering at his employer's
strange behaviour this morning. Among the letters was one which made
his cheek burn with self-reproach. It was an invitation to a club
dinner to be given that evening in honour of some visiting railroad
president.

It was just such an occasion as he had enjoyed very many times before,
and the recollection brought to mind the number of times he had gone
away from his own home and left his wife sitting drearily by the fire.
How could he have done it! He tossed the gilded invitation fiercely
into the waste basket, and, rising, walked his room thinking, thinking.
He had so much to do and so little time to do it in! He thought thus a
moment, then went out and walked rapidly over to the hotel where he was
in the habit of getting lunch when he did not go home. He ate a little
hurriedly, and then hastened out.

As he was going out upon the sidewalk, two young men came in and
jostled against him. They were smoking and talking in a loud tone.
Mr. Hardy caught the sound of his own name. He looked at the speaker,
and it was the face of the young man he had seen in his dream, the one
who had insulted George and struck him afterwards. For a moment Mr.
Hardy was tempted to confront the youth and inquire into his son's
habits.

"No," he said to himself after a pause; "I will have a good talk with
George himself. That will be the best."

He hurried back to the office and arranged some necessary work for his
clerk, took a walk through the other office, then went to the telephone
and called up the superintendent of the Sunday School, who was a
bookkeeper in a clothing house. He felt an intense desire to arrange
for an interview with him as soon as possible. Word came back from the
house that the superintendent had been called out of town by serious
illness in his old home, and would not be back until Saturday. Mr.
Hardy felt a disappointment more keen than the occasion seemed to
warrant. He was conscious that the time was very brief. He had fully
made up his mind that so far as in him lay he would redeem his selfish
past and make