thinking how bad it must be for his health."

"Indeed?" said Chester, inquiringly, but with the intention of leading
the old man back into talking about his other neighbours.

"Oh yes. You see, I often hear him coming home extremely late in the
night. Twelve, one, and two o'clock, sometimes even by broad daylight.
Not that I was watching him, but I often lie awake for hours, musing
about some particular book that I have not obtained. I'm afraid I shall
not sleep to-night for thinking of that book I missed at the sale
to-day. But I put it to you, my dear sir; it was too much to give, was
it not?"

"Certainly," said Chester, smiling, as he seized the opportunity to turn
back the conversation to the other side; "but I suppose, according to
your showing, the sum named would have been a trifle to your other
neighbours."

"Hah! Yes, I suppose it would--yes, I suppose it would. But are you a
collector?"

"I? Oh no," said Chester, smiling, "only a very ignorant body."

"No, no, no, no," said the old man, smiling pleasantly. "I know better
than that. One gets to know what a person is more or less by his
conversation, my dear sir, and I could vouch for it that you are a
student."

"Well, I must own to that, more or less, as to medicine and surgery."

"I thought so, I thought so," said the old man, bending down to clasp
his hands about one knee and sit as if thinking deeply over something,
while Chester gladly availed himself of the silence to give free rein to
his own thoughts.

For an idea had suddenly occurred to him which lit up his troubled brain
like a flash of light.

He was in the next house--the old man leading his solitary life seemed
pleased to have found someone ready to converse with him. Why should he
not try and cultivate the old fellow's acquaintance, and take advantage
of the opportunities it would afford him of watching his neighbours?

He had hardly thought this when the old man looked up, smiling at him in
a child-like, pleasant way.

"How strange--how very strange it all is, my dear sir. Now, you will
hardly credit me when I tell you that for some time past I have been
suffering from little symptoms which at their frequent and more frequent
recurrence suggest to me that I ought to consult a medical man."

"Indeed?" said Chester.

"Yes, my dear sir, indeed; but you see, I am a very old man now, and I
fear that I have grown weak and vacillating; I may add cowardly too. I
have shrunk