y
profession. Why not elevate it, glorify it, by doing these things
better than any one else had ever done them? There was an exhilaration
in the thought. It positively inspired me. I was in constant demand,
and was presented to almost every one. Toward the end of the evening
Mrs. Slater asked me to sing. I thought it odd for a large party, but
I sang my best. One thing damped my spirits. I had been standing in
the doorway, when I suddenly became aware of two waiters who were
whispering together at a short distance. In a lull of the music their
words reached me.

"Which did yer say he was?" said one in a loud whisper.

"That's him--him there by the door, the good-lookin' fellow. Looks as
if he didn't have nothin' in the world to do but stand there all the
evening," answered the other.

"You don't say!" ejaculated the first; "and he gets fifteen dollars
for doin' the likes of that? You and me has missed our vocation,
Bill."

I could have knocked down the impertinent fellows, but, after all,
what right had I to do it? It was all true. "Noblesse oblige," I
muttered through my clinched teeth; and catching Mrs. Slater's stern
glance, I went to do my duty by taking my partner to supper.

At the close of the evening Mr. Slater came up to me. He was certainly
a dignified-looking old fellow, but he seemed unhappy. "Well, Mr.
Valentine," he said, with rather a melancholy smile, "you have done
remarkably well. Been quite the life of the evening. Trying thing to
entertain a party of this size. This is the first time we have done
it. How do you think it went off? Your candid opinion now."

"Remarkably well," I said.

I noticed that his manner to me was secret and confidential, as if we
had entered into some dark partnership of crime.

"Mrs. Slater," he continued, "is an ambitious woman, and it was her
idea having you. She wanted a different style of young man from those
we have been accustomed to, and"--looking at me with a sad pride--"she
got it--she got it."

As I looked at him his face seemed to grow more familiar. At this
moment Miss Raggles, who had gone up-stairs to get her cloak, made her
appearance. I bade a hurried good-night to Mr. and Mrs. Slater, and
accompanied the young lady home. She lived in that part of Fifth
Avenue which is on the confines of both New York and Harlem. She
treated me as a distinguished stranger, and ended by inviting me to
call. Unsuspecting Miss Raggles! Her mother had apparently gone h