ith great
promptitude, and even the courtly principal deigned to inquire whether
he found everything to his mind. In short, Mr. Belcher seemed to find
that his name was as distinctly "Norval" in New York as in Sevenoaks,
and that his "Grampian Hills" were movable eminences that stood around
and smiled upon him wherever he went.

Retiring to his room to enjoy in quiet his morning cigar and to look
over the papers, his eye was attracted, among the "personals," to an
item which read as follows:

"Col. Robert Belcher, the rich and well-known manufacturer of Sevenoaks,
and the maker of the celebrated Belcher rifle, has arrived in town, and
occupies a suite of apartments at the Astor."

His title, he was aware, had been manufactured, in order to give the
highest significance to the item, by the enterprising reporter, but it
pleased him. The reporter, associating his name with fire-arms, had
chosen a military title, in accordance with the custom which makes
"commodores" of enterprising landsmen who build and manage lines of
marine transportation and travel, and "bosses" of men who control
election gangs, employed to dig the dirty channels to political success.

He read it again and again, and smoked, and walked to his glass, and
coddled himself with complacent fancies. He felt that all doors opened
themselves widely to the man who had money, and the skill to carry it in
his own magnificent way. In the midst of pleasant thoughts, there came a
rap at the door, and he received from the waiter's little salver the
card of his factor, "Mr. Benjamin Talbot." Mr. Talbot had read the
"personal" which had so attracted and delighted himself, and had made
haste to pay his respects to the principal from whose productions he was
coining a fortune.

Mr. Talbot was the man of all others whom Mr. Belcher desired to see;
so, with a glance at the card, he told the waiter promptly to show the
gentleman up.

No man in the world understood Mr. Belcher better than the quick-witted
and obsequious factor. He had been in the habit, during the ten years in
which he had handled Mr. Belcher's goods, of devoting his whole time to
the proprietor while that person was on his stated visits to the city.
He took him to his club to dine; he introduced him to congenial spirits;
he went to the theater with him; he went with him to grosser resorts,
which do not need to be named in these pages; he drove with him to the
races; he took him to lunch at suburban