"I hope not," said Dennis frankly.

"Well, ye see," said the foreman, "the prisint incoombent has been
mixin' too much red wid his paint, an' it don't wurrk."

"You mean he drinks?" asked Dennis with humorous inquiry.

"Oi do," replied the foreman; "an' now that we have inthroduced th'
subject, excuse a personal quistion: Do ye wet yure whistle in business
hours?"

"No," answered Dennis promptly, "nor out of them. Father attended to
that part of the business."

"Well," replied the foreman, "Oi can't talk longer wid ye this marnin'.
Come 'round be th' ind of the wake," and dismissing Dennis with a nod he
withdrew into the warehouse.

The main feature of discouragement which presented itself to Dennis as
he left this locality to ponder over its possibilities, was that the end
of the week was five days off.

This was serious.

His rupture with Muldoon, senior, had left him but poorly provided with
linen and lucre; and a campaign of assault upon the barricades of
prejudice and suspicion, which was involved in the anxious solicitude of
the man seeking employment, demanded every possible accessory of
personal appearance and a reasonably equipped commissariat.

Anxious, therefore, to subject his meager resources to the least strain
possible, Dennis at last succeeded in securing, in one of the more
pretentious stores on Baxter Street, a contrivance for the relief of
penury and threadbare gentility known at that time by the name of
"dickey."

This convenience consisted in a series of three shirt bosoms made of
paper to resemble the luxury of linen.

When the surface first exposed showed symptoms of soil or wear, its
removal revealed a fresh bosom directly under.

Adjusted to his waistcoat, it was almost impossible to detect the
agreeable sham, which, under favorable auspices, could be made to last
for a week.

Thus equipped, Dennis proceeded to his hotel, where, after according the
cheerful salutation of the industrious barkeeper the acknowledgment of a
lively Irish nod, in which there was both fellowship and refusal, he
proceeded to the rear, to banquet upon whatever offered the most for his
money.

During the two days succeeding, Dennis, true to the apprehensive
calculation natural to the unemployed, did not propose to rest upon the
assurances of his Irish friend in the publishing house.

Anything untoward might occur.

In fact, he was familiar with this seamy side of Providence.

He had been so often m