y's main arteries. Overhead the elevated trains crashed with
deafening noise, push-cart vendors shouted their wares, Italian
organ-grinders played discordant tunes, smudged-faced, tattered children
romped in the unclean gutters, slovenly housewives quarreled with cranky
janitors, a drunkard staggered in bestial condition from a corner
saloon, roughly moved on by a uniformed bully with swinging club;
sinister figures of men and women, human derelicts, crouched in
doorways, pavements and sidewalks were filthy with torn paper and
decaying fruit, tattered washing hanging from broken-down
fire-escapes--everything that is degraded and sordid was centered here
right in the heart of the richest and most modern city in the world.

But Armitage was too busily preoccupied to be disturbed by his squalid
surroundings. His appetite was keen, thanks to a day's hard work, and,
while he devoured with amazing celerity the contents of his heaped-up
plate, he stopped every now and then to read with closer attention the
newspaper which was propped up before him. It was a torn copy of that
morning's _Tribune_, and the part which interested him was an account on
the society page of the big reception which had taken place at the
residence of Mr. John Harmon on the previous day. It being a social
event of some importance, two columns were devoted to it, the writer
explaining the special occasion which it was intended to celebrate, and
retelling in vivid detail the story of the _Atlanta_'s ill-fated
voyage. Armitage smiled as he read the account, sensationally
exaggerated, of the beautiful young heiress' hairbreadth escapes from
angry ocean and venomous serpent and all the other terrors of a desert
island in company with a common sailor, who, when the rescue-party
safely reached America, strangely disappeared despite the grateful
railroad man's tireless efforts to discover his whereabouts and reward
him. Then the article went on to tell of Miss Harmon's improved
appearance, the delight of her friends, and to describe the wonderful
gowns worn by the fashionable women who had thronged to welcome her
home.

He was reading the article in a careless, amused kind of way when
suddenly he came to a paragraph which made him sit up with a start. It
read as follows:

"But perhaps the chief interest of the afternoon, apart from the
charming young heroine, centred in a distinguished guest, Prince
Sergius of Eurasia. His Royal Highness has b