."

"I hope you'll be all right to-morrow."

"I guess so."

So they separated, Gilbert, who was not inclined to be suspicious, not
doubting his fellow-clerk's statements.

That evening, when he returned to his boarding-house, the servant said:

"Did your friend find the opera-glass?"

"What?" said Gilbert.

"Shure a friend of yours called, and said you had sent him to borrow
your opera-glass."

"I sent nobody. Who was it? What did he look like?"

"He was about your size, shure, and had a black _mustash_."

"I don't know who it can be. Did he go up into my room?"

"Yes, he did. He said he knew the way."

"I can't think who it was."

Gilbert went up stairs, and, to increase the mystery, there was his
opera-glass on the bureau, where he usually kept it. It was directly in
sight, so that the visitor must have seen it.

"I can't understand it," he said, perplexed. "Mordaunt, do you know of
any friend of mine who has a black mustache?"

"Frank Oswald."

"He is considerably larger than I am. The servant said it was some one
of my size."

"I can't think of anybody else."

"I don't see why he didn't take the opera-glass, if he wanted it,
though it would have been rather bold, as I didn't authorize anybody to
take it."

As there seemed no clew to the mystery, and as, moreover, Gilbert had
no suspicion that the visitor was on an unlawful errand, he dismissed
it from his mind.

Two days afterward, Gilbert met his uncle in the street. As the week
was not up, he was about to pass him with a bow, when Mr. Grey paused,
and appeared inclined to speak.

"Young man," he said, "can you call on me this evening?"

"Yes, sir."

"I shall leave the city to-morrow, and, though it is of no consequence
to me, I suppose you would like to know my decision in regard to the
matter you broached the other day."

"I will call," said Gilbert, bowing.

"He looks as if he were going to defy me," thought our hero. "Well, I
am ready for him."

In the evening he called, and was shown up to his uncle's room.

"Good-evening, Mr. Grey," he said, politely.

"Good-evening, young sir," said the other. "You did me the honor, the
other day, of claiming relationship with me?"

"I did."

"Knowing that your claim had no foundation, but was only an impudent
fabrication, instigated by cupidity----"

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Gilbert, quietly, "but that statement I
deny most positively. I have not the slightest doubt that that