egister
recording his birth some five-and-thirty years before, would have known
his name to be Walter Lane Harding; and those who met him in business or
society would have become quite as well aware that he was a prosperous
merchant, doing business in one of the leading mercantile streets
running out of Broadway, not far from the City Hospital. So far as the
somewhat precise mercantile appearance of Harding was concerned, a true
disciple of Lavater would have judged correctly of him, for there were
few men in the city of New York who displayed more steadiness, or
greater money-making capacity in all the details of business; and yet
even the close observer would have been likely to derive a false
impression from this very preciseness, as to the social qualities of the
man. There were quite as few better or heartier laughers than Harding,
when duly aroused to mirth; and those persons were very rare, making the
characters of mankind their professional study, who saw slight
indications of disposition more quickly, or better enjoyed whatever gave
food for quiet merriment. Once away from his counting-house, too, Walter
Harding seemed to assume a second of his two natures that had before
been lying dormant, and to enter into the permitted gaieties of city
life with a zest that many a professed good fellow might have envied. He
visited the theatre, as we have seen; went to the opera when it pleased
him, not for fashion's sake, but because he liked music and was a
connoisseur of singing and acting; liked a stroll in the streets with a
congenial companion (male or female); could smoke a good cigar with
evident enjoyment; and sometimes, though rarely, sipped a glass of fine
old wine, and indulged in the freer pleasures of the table; though he
was scrupulously careful of his company, and no man had ever seen his
foot cross the threshold of a house of improper character. It is
sufficient, in addition, at the present moment, to say that he was still
a bachelor, occupying rooms in an up-town street, and enjoying life in
that pleasant and rational mode which seemed to promise long
continuance.

Harding's companion, who has already been indicated as his opposite, was
markedly so in personal appearance, at least. He was two or three inches
shorter than Harding, and much stouter, displaying a well-rounded leg
through the folds of his loose pants of light-gray Melton cloth, and
being quite well aware of that advantage of person. He had a s