his was owing principally to his honest aversion to
Hiram; but a disappointment lurked at the bottom. It was only the week
before the scene at the preparatory lecture that he had received a
letter from Egerton, written on American soil, advising him of his
return from Europe in a vessel just arrived from Marseilles. Mr. Burns
answered it immediately, inviting him to come at once and make him a
visit; but he breathed not a word of this to Sarah.

Affairs between her and Hiram were brought to a crisis much faster than
Mr. Burns could have anticipated. In short, Dr. Egerton arrived at the
most auspicious moment possible. But I shall not be precipitate. On the
contrary, I shall leave the lovers, if lovers they are to be, to pursue
their destiny in the only true way, namely, through a tantalizing maze
of hopes and fears and doubts and charming hesitations and anxieties to
a denouement, while I return to the proper subject of this
narrative--Hiram Meeker.

CHAPTER V.

Hill has opened a wholesale liquor store on his own account! Where did
Hill raise the money to start in business--a poor devil who could never
get eighteen pence ahead in the world? It does not appear. For one, I
will say that Hiram Meeker did not furnish it. _He_ not only belongs to
the temperance society, but he believes all traffic in the 'deadly
poison' to be a sin. Still where did Hill get the money or the credit to
start a wholesale liquor concern? More than this, Hill is doing a pretty
large business. Singular to say, he drinks less and swears less than he
did. He is more respectable apparently. He has a very fine store in
Water street. He does not deal in adulterated liquors. He sells his
articles, if the customer desires it, 'in bond;' that is, from under the
key of the custom house, which of course insures their purity. By a
singular coincidence, Hill's store is adjoining a 'U. S. Bonded
Warehouse.' Hill's goods, for convenience' sake, are sent to that
particular warehouse--frequently. The liquors are stored in the
basement. This basement is not supposed to communicate with the basement
of Hill's store. Certainly not. Yet Hill, _solus_, entirely and
absolutely _solus_, spends many evenings in the basement of his store.
Hill is a large purchaser of pure spirits. Pure spirits are worth
thirty-one cents a gallon, and brandy of right brand is worth two or
three dollars a gallon. One gallon of pure spirits mixed with two
gallons of brandy cannot be det