see your name so high up
on the temple of fame that no contemporary of this generation can reach
it."

"So high the letters will be indistinguishable, I fear," responded
Roseleaf, with a laugh. "Where do you think I can get the heartiest
supper in New York? I am positively starved. I don't believe I've eaten
a thing since yesterday. If you can help me any to clear the board, let
us go together."

This invitation was accepted, and Roseleaf began making a more
particular toilet, taking great pains with the set of his cravat and
spending at least ten minutes extra on his hair when he had finished
shaving himself. He never had allowed a barber to touch his face.

"You won't lose any time on the novel, will you?" asked Gouger,
anxiously, while these preparations were in progress. "You must take
hold of it while the events are fresh in your mind."

"All right. I'll begin again to-morrow morning, and stick to the work
till it's done. Where shall we go to supper? I'll tell you--Isaac
Leveson's."

The critic could not conceal his surprise at the overturn that had taken
place so suddenly in the young man's conduct. He stared at him with a
look that approached consternation.

"You want to go there!" he exclaimed, unable to control himself. "You
wish to dine with some pretty girl, eh?"

Roseleaf started violently.

"No, no! Not--yet!" he answered. "We can get a supper room without that
appendix. I wish to be among men as mean as myself. I want to dine in a
house full of people who would cut a woman's throat--or break her
heart--and sleep soundly when they had done it!"

CHAPTER XXV.

AN UNDISCOVERABLE SECRET.

The Ferns did not stay much longer at Midlands. Crushed by their
misfortunes neither cared to remain near the scenes that had made them
so unhappy, nor where they would be likely to meet faces which kept
alive their grief. The father knew no more than at first concerning the
strange conduct of his daughter. She had told him nothing, and he had
not asked her a single question. It was enough for him that she was
bowed with a great trouble. His only thought was to mitigate her
distress in every possible way. He was old--how old he had not realized
until that week when she changed from a happy, laughing girl, standing
at the threshold of a marriage she longed for, to a sombre shadow that
walked silently by his side. He was the one who under ordinary
circumstances should have received the care and the though