r,
the young man lifting his broad-brimmed felt hat in acknowledgment of
her civility. He lifted it by seizing the crown in a bunch. It is
difficult to lift a soft hat gracefully. Buckingham followed the pair,
and when he had reached his own door-way he continued to follow them
with his eyes until they were lost at a bend in the street. Then he
entered the house where he lodged, and sat down in his study. He was
greatly pleased with this little turn in affairs.

"That is one step further in my story," he said to himself, for there
was no one else to say it to. "So she is Miss Martindale, and this young
man with a scar has come to see her father on business. He will stay to
tea. The father will--what will the father do or say? I must look out
the name in the directory, so as to get some solid basis of fact about
the father,--something to avoid, of course, when I arrange him in the
story. If he is a stone-cutter I must make him a house- and
sign-painter. I must disguise him so that his most intimate friend will
not detect him."

Austin Buckingham was in the most agreeable humor as he proceeded to
prepare his solitary tea, for he was a bachelor and yet he detested
restaurants and boarding-houses. His dinner he needed to buy, and eat
where he bought it, but his breakfast and tea he provided in the room
which served as study and dining-room. He did not wash his dishes, it
may be remarked, with the exception of a Kaga cup which was too precious
to be intrusted to his landlady.

He had set aside his tea-things, and, with a paper and pencil, was
proceeding to sketch a plot for his story, with Miss Martindale for the
heroine and the young man with a scar for a hero, when there was a knock
at the door, and the servant came in, bearing a card. It contained the
name of Henry Dale Wilding, a correspondent whom he had never met, but
who had begun with asking for his autograph, and had now ended, it
seems, with calling in person.

"Show him up," said the story-teller; and Mr. Wilding, who was two steps
behind the servant, instantly presented himself. His face was certainly
familiar. Ah! it was the scar upon the face which made the recognition
easy.

III.

MR. WILDING.

"This is very pleasant," said Buckingham cordially, as he bade the young
man lay aside his coat and take a seat by the fire. While his guest was
obeying him, the host said in an aside,--only the aside was inaudible,
contrary to the custom of asides,--"He doe