the Callenders again on his return, and perhaps
did not think it necessary to report the meeting. But one morning he
was delighted to find an official document from New York upon his desk,
asking him to communicate with David Callender of St. Kentigern, and,
on proof of his identity, giving him authority to draw the sum of five
thousand dollars damages awarded for the loss of certain property on
the Skyscraper, at the request of James Gow. Yet it was with mixed
sensations that the consul sought the little shop of the optician with
this convincing proof of Gow's faithfulness and the indissolubility of
Ailsa's engagement. That there was some sad understanding between the
girl and Gray he did not doubt, and perhaps it was not strange that he
felt a slight partisanship for his friend, whose nature had so strangely
changed. Miss Ailsa was not there. Her father explained that her health
had required a change, and she was visiting some friends on the river.

"I'm thinkin' that the atmosphere is not so pure here. It is deficient
in ozone. I noticed it myself in the early morning. No! it was not the
confinement of the shop, for she never cared to go out."

He received the announcement of his good fortune with unshaken calm and
great practical consideration of detail. He would guarantee his identity
to the consul. As for James Gow, it was no more than fair; and what he
had expected of him. As to its being an equivalent of his loss, he could
not tell until the facts were before him.

"Miss Ailsa," suggested the consul venturously, "will be pleased to hear
again from her old friend, and know that he is succeeding."

"I'm not so sure that ye could call it 'succeeding,'" returned the old
man, carefully wiping the glasses of a pair of spectacles that he held
critically to the light, "when ye consider that, saying nothing of the
waste of valuable time, it only puts James Gow back where he was when he
went away."

"But any man who has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. and Miss Callender
would be glad to be on that footing," said the consul, with polite
significance.

"I'm not agreeing with you there," said Mr. Callender quietly; "and I'm
observing in ye of late a tendency to combine business wi'
compleement. But it was kind of ye to call; and I'll be sending ye the
authorization."

Which he did. But the consul, passing through the locality a few weeks
later, was somewhat concerned to find the shop closed, with others
on the same