l esteem it priceless."

"You must go?" she asked, for he had risen.

"I have stayed long enough," he answered. "In another five minutes you
will yawn, and mine would have been a wasted visit. I should like to
time my visits always so that the five minutes which I might have stayed
seem to you the most desirable five minutes of the whole time."

"You are an epicurean and a schemer," she declared. "I am afraid of
you."

* * * * *

He bought an evening paper on his way to St. James's Square, and
leaning back in his brougham, glanced it carelessly through. Just as he
was throwing it aside a small paragraph at the bottom of the page caught
his attention.

A NOVEL PHILANTHROPIC DEPARTURE.

THE FIRST BUREAU OPENED TO-DAY.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. KINGSTON BROOKS.

He folded the paper out, and read through every line carefully. A few
minutes after his arrival home he re-issued from the house in a bowler
hat and a long, loose overcoat. He took the Metropolitan and an omnibus
to Stepney, and read the paragraph through again. Soon he found himself
opposite the address given.

He recognized it with a little start. It had once been a mission hall,
then a furniture shop, and later on had been empty for years. It was
brilliantly lit up, and he pressed forward and peered through the
window. Inside the place was packed. Brooks and a dozen or so others
were sitting on a sort of slightly-raised platform at the end of the
room, with a desk in front of each of them. Lord Arranmore pulled his
hat over his eyes and forced his way just inside. Almost as he entered
Brooks rose to his feet.

"Look here," he said, "you all come up asking the same question and
wasting my time answering you all severally. You want to know what this
place means. Well, if you'll stay just where you are for a minute, I'll
tell you all together, and save time."

"Hear, hear, guv'nor," said a bibulous old costermonger, encouragingly.
"Let's hear all about it."

"So you shall," Brooks said. "Now listen. I dare say there are a good
many of you who go up in the West End sometimes, and see those big
houses and the way people spend their money there, who come back to your
own houses here, and think that things aren't exactly dealt out square.
Isn't that so?"

There was a hearty and unanimous assent.

"Well," Brooks continued, "it may surprise you to hear that a few of us
who have a little money up there have come to the same conc