o be continued on Dickey No. 2, Series B.)

* * * * *

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Dennis, "an' it's there ye are again," as the
familiar phrase at the bottom of bosom No. 1 met his glance.

But it did not exasperate him on this occasion, for the young man, true
to his determination to be liberal with himself, had still bosoms No. 2
and No. 3 at his disposal.

As he was about to separate No. 2 from its duplicate, his eyes, glancing
aimlessly about for the moment, caught sight of a trim female figure
sitting not far away on a bench diagonally opposite.

Hovering near her, a man, of a species Dennis had not seen before on the
street corners of New York, seemed determined to intrude upon her
attention.

Convinced of his purpose, the lady, for such she unmistakably appeared,
rose from the seat as the fellow was about to raise his hat as a
preliminary to further overtures, and sought another bench directly
opposite the one from which Dennis had been a witness to her apparent
persecution.

The intruder, however, refusing evidently to believe that the action of
the lady had a personal application, deliberately walked past this new
resting place and surveyed its occupant with insolent estimation.

A short distance away his pace slackened; he was about to return.

With genuine Irish impulse, Dennis, rising hurriedly, proceeded to the
bench occupied by the disturbed lady, and, with a bow that was not
deficient in grace and evident good intention, said:

"Excuse me, but say the wurrd, madam, and I'll see that you are troubled
no more with that loafer."

For an instant, with an expression of countenance that suggested a fear
that the flight from one intrusion was but the introduction to another,
the lady looked upon Dennis with an astonishment that was partly the
result of his picturesque contrasts of voice and visage.

Then, with fine intuition realizing, in the ingenuous face of the young
Irishman, the unmistakable evidence of kindly impulse, she said, with a
modulation in which Dennis was able to detect the accent of good
breeding:

"I thank you, sir; I am tired; that man annoys me; but I would rather
move on than be the cause of a disturbance."

"If you will permit me," responded Dennis promptly, "I will sit beside
you long enough to indicate that you have met a friend; then I think
that he will move off."

The lady looked at Dennis with an uncertain smile, in which there was