lable and
unsalable as well as you do brown sugar.--Keep quiet now, and I will go
and get your manuscript for you.

"There, Mr. Hopkins, take your poems,--they will give you a reputation
in your village, I don't doubt, which, is pleasant, but it will cost you
a good deal of money to print them in a volume. You are very young: you
can afford to wait. Your genius is not ripe yet, I am confident, Mr.
Hopkins. These verses are very well for a beginning, but a man of
promise like you, Mr. Hopkins, must n't throw away his chance by
premature publication! I should like to make you a present of a few
of the books we publish. By and by, perhaps, we can work you into
our series of poets; but the best pears ripen slowly, and so with
genius.--Where shall I send the volumes?"

Gifted answered, to parlor No. 6, Planet Hotel, where he soon presented
himself to Master Gridley, who could guess pretty well what was coming.
But he let him tell his story.

"Shall I try the other publishers?" said the disconsolate youth.

"I would n't, my young friend, I would n't. You have seen the best one
of them--all. He is right about it, quite right: you are young, and had
better wait. Look here, Gifted, here is something to please you. We are
going to visit the gay world together. See what has been left here this
forenoon."

He showed him two elegant notes of invitation requesting the pleasure
of Professor Byles Gridley's and of Mr. Gifted Hopkins's company on
Thursday evening, as the guests of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, of 24 Carat
Place.

CHAPTER XXVI. MRS. CLYMER KETCHUM'S PARTY.

Myrtle Hazard had flowered out as beyond question the handsomest girl
of the season, There were hints from different quarters that she might
possibly be an heiress. Vague stories were about of some contingency
which might possibly throw a fortune into her lap. The young men about
town talked of her at the clubs in their free-and-easy way, but all
agreed that she was the girl of the new crop,--"best filly this grass,"
as Livingston Jenkins put it. The general understanding seemed to be
that the young lawyer who had followed her to the city was going to
capture her. She seemed to favor him certainly as much as anybody. But
Myrtle saw many young men now, and it was not so easy as it would once
have been to make out who was an especial favorite.

There had been times when Murray Bradshaw would have offered his heart
and hand to Myrtle at once, if he had felt sure t