cent, had
awakened an interest in the mind of his companion which months of adroit
approach could not have achieved.

His genuineness was unquestionable.

His entire absorption in the story, his delightful and unconscious
elimination of self, supplied this tired woman with elements of mental
refreshment and genuine enjoyment which circumstances had compelled her
to decide no longer existed.

Encouraged, therefore, by this unmistakable interest and the amiable
attitude of attention which Dennis, with characteristic ingenuousness,
accepted as a tribute to the narrative, he exclaimed:

"An' isn't it great, now? Did you ever hear such a tale as that?"

"I never did," was the smiling reply.

"An' wasn't that Raikes a div--a tight one, I mean?"

"He was, indeed," assented the lady, as she reviewed this sordid
character and the incidents surrounding him, and contrasted the tumult
of phrase and situation with her genial Addison and her placid Irving.

"An' would you like to hear the rest?" asked Dennis, as he produced the
remaining bosom of Series B.

"Yes," replied the lady, "I believe I would. But just a moment before
you begin," and regarding this oblivious young man with an expression in
which a degree of speculation still lingered to tantalize its suggestion
of frank indorsement, she hazarded:

"You have not lived in New York long?"

Wondering at the acuteness of this observation, Dennis responded by
according to her the exact time of his brief residence.

"Ah!" exclaimed the lady, "I thought so."

"May I ask," inquired Dennis, wondering if, like the visitor from the
bucolic district, he supplied unconscious data in his appearance for
classification, "may I ask how you are able to tell that I'm here for a
short time only?"

"Well," returned his companion with a degree of hesitation exquisitely
refined as it shadowed through her fine countenance, and which she
presently conquered as she replied to his question with that shade of
frankness which, in the well-bred, can never be mistaken for anything
else: "It requires about a year's residence in this bedlam to replace
the genuine with the artificial; I see no evidence of such an unhappy
transformation in you."

"Oh, I see," responded Dennis. "An' you never will, either."

"I am almost prepared to believe that," answered the lady with a
reassuring cordiality which somehow indicated to this young man that she
had already become convinced of more than she was