esolutely refrained from looking in a
newspaper, until one morning some weeks after his arrival at Richmond.

Entering a reading-room, he caught up the Cincinnati Gazette, and
after assuring himself by a hasty glance that it did not contain what
he so much dreaded to see, he sat down to read it, paying no
attention to the date, which was three or four weeks back.
Accidentally he cast his eye over the list of arrivals at the Burnet
House, seeing among them the names of "Mr. H. R. Graham, and Miss L.
R. Graham, Woodford county, Kentucky!"

"_Audacious_! How dare they be so bold!" he exclaimed, springing to
his feet and tearing the paper in fragments, which he scattered upon
the floor.

"Considerable kind of uppish, 'pears to me," said a strange voice,
having in its tone the nasal twang peculiar to a certain class of
Yankees.

Looking up, Durward saw before him a young man in whose style of
dress and freckled face we at once recognize Joel Slocum. Wearying
of Cincinnati, as he had before done with Lexington, he had traveled
at last to Virginia. Remembering to have heard that his
grandmother's aunt had married, died, and left a daughter in
Richmond, he determined, if possible, to find some trace of her.
Accordingly, he had come on to that city, making it the theater of
his daguerrean operations. These alone not being sufficient to
support him, he had latterly turned his attention to _literary
pursuits_, being at present engaged in manufacturing a book after the
Sam Slick order, which, to use his own expression, "he expected would
have a thunderin' sale."

In order to sustain the new character which he had assumed, he came
every day to the reading-room, tumbling over books and papers,
generally carrying one of the former in his hand, affecting an utter
disregard of his personal appearance, daubing his fingers with ink,
wiping them on the pocket of his coat, and doing numerous other
things which he fancied would stamp him a distinguished person.

On the morning of which we have spoken, Joel's attention was
attracted toward Durward, whose daguerreotype he had seen at Maple
Grove, and though he did not recognize the original, he fancied he
might have met him before, and was about making his acquaintance,
when Durward's action drew from him the remark we have mentioned.
Thinking him to be some impertinent fellow, Durward paid him no
attention, and was about leaving, when, hitching his chair a little
nearer, Joel sai