Footpads

I DON’T know what there is particularly tempting to thieves in Royal’s face and mine, but, without vanity, I think we may say that that gentry find more charms there than usually centre in the human countenance ; for what the flame is to the moth, the drop of honey to the swarm of flies, we seem to be to that ingenious class of people.

Not indeed to the generic thief,— the thief proper, so to say, — who surreptitiously takes your purse or your jewel through any undue development of the secretive organs, nor to the sly and suffering kleptomaniac under his ban of eternal torture ; but to that class who from the courage of the highwayman subtract merely the brutality, and transfer the celerity of the pickpocket from the fingers to the thoughts, and with bold combinations and unblushing fronts present themselves in all the dash and daring of the ancient blackmailing border baron and demand your money or your — self-respect,

As I said, I cannot fancy to myself the cabala whose secret writing stamps us the chosen victims of this latter sort; for I am sure there is nothing of the blandly benevolent in our appearance, while, if my lunettes had their rights, they would scare away all who could not unflinchingly receive the glare of their scrutiny ; and as to a glance of Royal’s eyes, I should say it would detect truth as infallibly as Ithuriel’s spear itself, if that weapon had not by this time lost all its point.

But whatever the cause may be, the effect remains, and these marauders have marked us for their own. Not to speak of the people at the door, who have had their fingers torn off by machinery or their toes bitten off by frost, and who batten on us ; nor of the street mendicants whom Royal always merrily dismissed with a quarter and an injunction to drink his health therewith, — the last one who had implored piteously for ten cents to buy a loaf of bread for his starving children, on receipt of this injunction and the strip of precious paper, actually saying, “ Thank yes, surr, I wull ! ” and walking off with a grin, quite another man ; not to speak of the venerable impostor who, on the first time that Royal ever entered the sacred precincts of the Common, extended an open and authoritative palm to him. “Why,” said Royal, quite amazed, “ I never knew they charged an admission fee to the Common ! ” “A recent custom, sir,” said the hoary sinner, with imperturbable self-possession ; and thinking so much brass would be better for an alloy, Royal gave him a bit of silver, — it was in those heavy and uncomfortable and purse-destroying days of specie : not to speak of them, nor of the poor soldier-boy who badgers us into buying, nor of the blind beggars who, Royal says, always see him first of anybody, nor of the subscription-book pedlers, who declare themselves sent to us by friends whose advice we may not reject, or who begin their set speeches at the door, working their way in the while and never going till our money goes with them; never leaving half the numbers,— which seemed so easy to take at fifty cents a month, but which come ten at a time, — and taking those they do bring away one day to bind, and never bringing them back again ; not to speak of any of these, let me tell you of a nobler and larger sort, a sort of Hounslow Heath mendicants, who first made their approach to us in the person of one Mr. Fitz James, who, having obtained entrance at our house, desired that I should wait upon him.

Bntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

It being exceedingly early in the morning, and I just awakened from that rest more delicious than all before, — the last sweet strippings of sleep, as it were, — I declined to detain the owner of so fine a patronymic; and mamma, who is one of the sun-worshippers up with the lark, went down to learn the errand.

“ Madam,” said the stranger, a tall and rather courtly person, on mamma’s entrance, and as if no business could be transacted till so weighty a problem was solved, “can you give me the name of the painter of this picture ? ”

“No, indeed,” said the innocent lady.

“ I am sure I know the hand,” said he then pensively, and still regarding the scene. “ There are traces — touches — I have seen the companionpiece in Germany". It is a very nice thing. I hope you understand its worth.”

“ My daughter does value it, I believe,” said mamma, trusting by mention of me to recall him to his own affairs.

“Your daughter, — that reminds me,” said he, suddenly wheeling about; and then with a pang of disappointment darkening his face, “ am I not to see herself? ”

“ She begs to be excused,” answered mamma, “ But perhaps, if your business with her is of importance, you can call again, or can transact it through me.”

“It is an unseasonable hour, I confess,” he replied. “ But I had trusted — In fact could I see your daughter, I should— It is hard—■ it is difficult — addressing a stranger—but she is one of the guild, a member of the same profession as myself, a profession accustomed to vicissitudes, — she would understand and grant what I cannot venture to expect of you, madam, though your countenance — ”

“You wish,” said mamma, her eyes opening, and coming cruelly to the point, — “you wish for assistance of some kind, I presume.”

“ That is it exactly ! Thanks, dear madam, for sparing my embarrassment and chagrin so kindly. Why should I beat about the bush ? I really beg your pardon, but what a magnificent palm-branch that is ! ” And he approached the corner where a great dry bough arched and rustled its withered fronds from floor to ceiling and shook out odors of dates and Africa. “ The cocoa palm, I imagine ? The ivory has a different leaf. That is a treasure. What a delight it must be to a person of your daughter’s cast of mind!” It was mamma’s particular detestation as a dust-catcher and lair of cobwebs. “ Now if I had that in my study, of how many of my voyages among coral reefs, along the low tropical coasts, it would remind me, and bring Florida and Trinidad and Abyssinia into the third story back of Eighth Avenue — ” Here mamma gently recalled him to the object of his visit.

“A thousand apologies!” he exclaimed. “ But when one has only a disagreeable thing to do— The truth is,” he said, “that I am a member of the press, one of the staff of the Corinthian, Mr. Tudor Fitz James,” with an obeisance; “and having taken my vacation, I find myself, after the usual improvidence of my kind, — light come, light go, you know, though why I should say light come, I am sure I don’t know, — I find myself without a dollar in my pocket ! ”

“ Indeed,” said mamma with some non-committal strategy, as she prided herself, since expression of sympathy meant belief, and belief meant concession.

“ It is true,” said Mr. Fitz James, “ that I could wait here and telegraph to my chief for funds, but the delay would involve a considerable additional expense that I do not feel qualified to meet, while the items in my possession are of some urgency; and in this dilemma, being fortunately in the same town with her, I have resolved to ask that your daughter will render temporary aid to a brother in distress, assuring her that the return of the mail will bring her whatever she may have generously loaned me. Will you add to my obligations, madam, by delivering to her this message, and with it my regrets that I am unable to make the personal acquaintance of one who has lightened so many hours for me ? ” etc., etc., etc.

“ I’m sure I don't know who he is,” said mamma, when re-entering my room; “he says his name is Fitz James, — that sounds well; and he is one of the editors of the Corinthian, and he certainly has easy manners ; he has been in Germany, and appears to have travelled the world over, and knew at once where your palm-branch was from, and talked critically about the pictures. But he has got out of money, and wants enough to reach New York, when he will return it. So he says. But I don’t know about it.”

A member of the press, a slave of the lamp, in just such a strait as I might be myself some day, or Royal, or any of the boys, away from home, without a dollar! And a gentleman too ; I could fancy his humiliation. I was a little fool then, have perhaps only changed the adjective now. I don’t know that I had a spark of esprit du corps, but I thought I ought to have. “ O yes, indeed,” I said, “ I should not think of hesitating.” They were sadly impecunious days, but I sent him down the half 1 had. When he had gone, mamma, reporting the end of the interview, said, “ He praised the picture over the piano, and said it was by some master-hand; he had seen its mate in Germany.”

“ O dear me,” said I. “ Royal painted that at the age of thirteen. There’s the last I shall see of my money then.” And it certainly was; for Mr. Fitz James is the richer, and I the poorer, for that small sum, to this writing.

The next mild-mannered cut-purse who levied tribute on us was one Theodore of the Fairfax, as he styled himself at the door. Royal had then some friends staying at the Fairfax, and there had consequently been a good deal of going and coming between their rooms and ours, together with notes and messages brought and sent by the servants ; and when Theodore was ushered into our presence we could only take it for granted that he was one of the hundred colored boys, more or less, who had waited on us at the Fairfax, and whose shades of darkness rendered them as indistinguishable as one night from another.

Theodore apologized very respectfully for intruding his own affairs upon Royal, and especially upon a Sunday, but assured him, as compensatory matter, that he was the only gentleman, among all those frequenting the Fairfax, to whom he felt he could intrust his little troubles without danger of a disheartening rebuff; this with a grieved look upon his dark pleasant face, and a great many bows and much gingerliness.

Royal asked him, of course, cr it would n’t have been Royal, what was the trouble now. And it appeared that Theodore’s brother Commodious had got into a little difficulty, and unless he could be got out of it would have to go to the lock-up ; and money was the only thing that could get him out of it; and Theodore would gladly have used the whole of his month’s wages, but they were not due till the next Saturday ; and, what made the case particularly uncomfortable was, that Mrs. Commodious had, a few hours before, been blest with two little Commodii, and Theodore could not say what would become of her, or them either, if her husband were snatched away at such a moment; and, to cap the climax of complication, their oldest boy had just matriculated at Howard University, and it would be an undying mortification to him if his father at the same time matriculated at the Police Court.

“Isn’t that a little singular?” said Royal.

“Sah ? ”

“ Do many boys in his circumstances attend the universities ? ”

“ O sah ! ” said Theodore, understanding the pleasantry, and with a flattering smile. “ Dat ar place ’longs ter our people.”

“ Yes, indeed, Royal,” said I quickly, and fearful lest suspicion hurt the honest Theodore’s, feelings. “And you noticed, yourself, how eager they all are to give their children every advantage.”

“ Very true.”

“An’ den his mother’s an ambitious woman, very ambitious,” added Theodore, reflectively. “ She dresses dere har fur all de fuss ladies. She’s a tasty woman, dey all considers, an’ dey sends fur her up ter der Executive Mansion an’ all der Foreign Missions. But dis yer matter ob Lent’s comin’ in so early made society dull so’t did n’ signify at all. An’ Ise been up dar,” said he somewhat incoherently ; “ Ise jus’ come fum dar whar she’s at, an’ de on’y t’ing in der house was a bottle.” And here Theodore paused to wipe his eyes with a napkin, perhaps as being more peculiarly a property of his part, leaving us to imagine the contents of that bottle ; I presuming them to be soothing-syrup, and Royal, ginger-pop, but which Theodore presently so far overcame his emotion as to pronounce Mrs. Montmorency’s hair restorer.

“Poor woman!” said I. “Poor thing, in such a pass! Where did you say it was? We must send her up some food immediately.”

“ Would n’ bodder ye dat way nohow, miss. She’s sensitive too. An’ all ob us waiters has baskets ob broken victuals after dark, ’nough to answer eb’ry purpose. She’s under obligations fur der kindness dough,” said Theodore with an extra scrape, “an’ ’deed, miss, ’t would melt yer heart ter see dem two babies cuddled togedder like, like — ” And rolling round his eyes for a simile, they happened on the black-walnut cherubs surmounting the mirror, which he instantly made use of to complete his sentence.

It touched me ; yes, it did ; for I never could see why the proud race that came down from the snows of Caucasus and brought some of those snows in its blood should arrogate to itself all the honors of angelhood ; and I have often wondered if there could not be found in all the clouds of faces opening round Raphael’s and Murillo’s Madonnas some one little black angel ; and here were two of them, two little black angels, and with so much trouble before them in the sublunary sphere to which they had just fallen, and their father trembling on the edge of the lock-up ; though for all the good he appeared to be to his household he might as well be there as anywhere. Instinctively my hand crept to my pocket.

But Royal was before me. Indeed, Royal and I have usually an amicable strife on such occasions, arising from our profound distrust of each other ; for Royal, convinced that I am a prodigal of the prodigals, is persuaded that I will give all I have ; and I, aware that Royal is a tender-hearted spendthrift, am assured that he will give a great deal more than I will; and so, in a laudable desire on both sides to cheat the beneficiary in spite of ourselves, the race is to the swift between us ; and in this case Royal’s wallet was half emptied before mine was found, and Theodore had wasted no time and few words, but was gone with a mouthful of heartiest thanks and an oathbound promise that we should see him on Saturday night; which — need I say? — we never did.

Poor Theodore ! I should like to know his fateSometimes I fancy that our brief acquaintance was but an incident in the beginning of a brilliant career which has ere now reached an appropriate consummation in the penitentiary. It is a thousand pities that he took that road to fame, for I am sure, with the skill evinced in the creation of the sister-in-law and the sketch of her circumstances, he might have won a high rank in the field of fiction, — all the more since I am quite satisfied, as I tell Royal when reproaching him for his precipitancy, that he never was a man and a brother at all, but merely a discarded negro minstrel turning his talents to practical account.

Not so with Davidson, whom mention of Theodore always calls to mind. He was an Ethiopian of the sangre azul, — black and blue rather, — a being as black outside, in fact, as he was inside, with a tinct not to be washed away. Not to insinuate that he ever made the rash attempt; for to look at Davidson was to recognize him a member of the human family, he was so plainly made of the dust of the earth, made evidently of a hydrophobic temperament emphasized with a little wholesome horror of soap. He had a sort of magical familiarity with dirt, indeed ; the crispest and cleanest of banknotes needed but to pass through his fingers to make the color of that money a hyperbolical term for most emphatically filthy lucre, for it came back a weltering mass of change, fit to be compared with nothing but the lining of his own pocket ; and so infallibly did he leave his mark on paper, book, or bundle, that, may Heaven forgive the fancy, I actually began to look and see if the black did not rub off. Had not Davidson been the husband of many more wives than one, — such is the perversity of the female mind,—his person and his personnel might have presented less of his native element; but among the number it may have been difficult to say with whom the augean task lay of discovering the real Davidson beneath his top-dressing, and the result was our errand-boy with all his imperfections on his head.

It was a little odd that we never could look at Davidson without being reminded of fetich and obeah worship and all the train of kindred superstitions, for it was in the character of their envoy that Davidson made the onset upon us which, however unsuccessful, entitles him to a place in these reminiscences.

Royal had been confined to the house with a long illness, from which his recovery was slow ; and it was one morning, of those many tedious mornings, when Davidson brought in the newspapers, that he remarked to Royal that if it was n’t for the doctors he should think he was bewitched ; and on Royal’s jesting with the idea a moment, Davidson assured him gravely that it was ill-jesting, and declared, with many shakes of a prophetic head, that nothing would induce him to incense in that way a person who had power over life and death.

Being requested to explain his meaning, Davidson averred that he did n’t wish to alarm us, but if we remembered an old colored beggar who had some weeks since walked in uninvited and handed Royal a paper, and had been summarily dismissed the premises on said paper’s proving to be too barefaced a forgery even for Royal’s acceptance, we might also remember a certain dark and evil glance that he gave Royal, which Davidson saw, and which impressed him at the moment as an expression of the terrible powers belonging to the obeah priests ; and Davidson entertained no doubt that that man had instituted proceedings which were shortening Royal’s days, and in truth he had set some inquiries on foot, and not wishing to alarm us, had discovered that this was so. Begged to enlighten us as to the particular method of destruction employed by these potent beings, Davidson looked over his shoulder, cautiously closed the door, and assumed an air of mystery well becoming his dark countenance. Davidson then told us that the truth was that this was a momentous secret which it didn’t do to have others even know you had in your keeping. Furthermore, Davidson said that there were a great many people of his race, in the neighborhood of Long Island, born with this wonderful power over birth and the grave, but in this region they were very few. Davidson had himself purchased the secret for a large sum of money in his youth, but he had been obliged to have recourse to his learning but once. The way the obeah was conducted was so simple, Davidson said, that no one’s suspicions could be aroused by it. The practitioner merely required to touch you, your head, your hand, the hem of your garment, and virtue went out of you. On reaching home or any secluded spot he kneaded a little lump of dough, wetting it from a vein in his own arm, and into it, by means of sundry runes and rhymes handed down from father to son, working all the virtue drawn from you by the previous touch. This lump of dough then, to all obeah intents and purposes, became yourself, and being set before the fire, after due rubbing in of the juice of certain herbs with the skins of certain reptiles, according as it dried and hardened you withered and weakened, as it browned you paled, and when it was burnt black you were corpse-white and cold, and presently the little evil object and you were ashes together. Davidson then proceeded to inform us that there were but two ways in all the ways of the world to overcome this horrific influence,— ways not easy to use, because, though you knew them ever so well, you were not likely to know who it was that was practising the dark art upon you.

But though it was taking a great risk to tell us, who were, in a manner, to be considered outside barbarians, yet out of the regard which he had long since conceived for us, he would let us know as much as he knew himself. The first of these ways, and undoubtedly the best, Davidson had once used : it was merely, when you were quite sure that you were the subject of an obeah man’s practices, to lie in wait for the man in the dark, knock him down, and draw blood from him, — blood, the merest scratch, would do, — you were safe from his power forevermore. But it was not a sure thing ; for these men hardened themselves with all kinds of exercises and enchantments, and their familiars kept them warned and alert, these familiars might be seen sitting on their left ear ; Davidson had never seen one himself, — it needed the second sight for that, — but his mother had, and they wore charms about them to repel you ; and if you failed in your attempt, no one had yet lived to tel! the horrible thing that happened to him, said Davidson with chattering teeth. Davidson would never forget, he said, the night he lay in wait for old Ezra, behind the door of a room as black as the bottomless pit, his heart failing him, but beating into life again as he remembered that he could but die anyway, and he should certainly die if he did n’t overcome the obeah, for he had been in a bad way with the bewitchment for months ; and at last lie heard the old man come up the dark stairs, slowly, tired with the burden of his day’s scraping in the streets, but singing a low tune to himself, and his own blood ran cold ; but he nerved himself, for he had all the time kept repeating the sacred name over and over, and, when he struck, his arm was like an iron hammer that struck sparks of fire, and old Ezra never practised obeah any more, though he lived, O yes, he lived, a year and a day.

The other way to baffle these conjurers, Davidson then informed us, was neither so troublesome nor so dangerous. He would not deceive us; it simply lay in the exercise of a necromancy more potent than any other on earth, — the passing of a piece of gold. There were none of these men but could be bought off, if you cared to abate your grudge sufficiently to do it, as frequently happened when one was too weak and ill to use personal violence ; and in the case in question Davidson had no doubt, on the contrary he was positive, in fact he had sounded the man, and felt warranted in saying that, for a matter of fifteen or twenty dollars, the spell should be reversed and Royal be on his feet again and going about as well as ever in a Week or fortnight.

“ Davidson,” said Royal, “ I can’t think of buying off the scamp. In fact,

I shall feel some curiosity in watching the result of his experiment. If it makes me the founder of a new religious system, life would be but a slight forfeit to pay. But as for yourself,” continued Royal to the gaping and astonished Davidson, “ you deserve a gratuity for your ingenuity, and here it is. And here are your wages, small for your merit, — so small, indeed, that they fail to justify me in retaining a person of your talents in my service.” And Davidson, it might be supposed, was no longer our errandboy. Not so: in some mysterious way he does our bidding and our obeah to the present day.

It was after our return home from the Southern winter in which we made the acquaintance of Theodore of the Fairfax that there appeared some new prowlers around our little purse.

I had been shopping in town, and being of undecided taste I was now sitting in the counting-room waiting for some shawls to be sent there in order that Royal might say which he liked the best, and Royal had gone down the wharves with one of his seacaptains, when a young woman came in, and having inquired of a clerk outside for my husband, sat down composedly for his return. I presumed she had some business about a son or brother to be employed in the counting-room, and did not trouble myself concerning her further than to observe that she was rather pretty and rather well dressed, though not expensively so.

After remaining some time, the young woman seemed to weary of that idle occupation, and murmuring that she thought she would come again, rose and left the place.

1 had an interesting novel, for my part, in which I was quite rapt, and I did not notice how the time passed ; but it could hardly have been a halfhour afterward when my lady reappeared, made the same inquiry of the clerk, came into the inner room, and took the same seat. The clerk followed me to ask if I expected Royal soon, and if the guest troubled me ; and on his withdrawal, after fidgeting about a good deal, I heard the lady addressing either me or the universe, and saying she thought she would leave a note ; with which she moved to the desk and drew a sheet of paper to herself, wet a pen, and dated and directed her note. There she paused ; and I began to be uncomfortably aware of her, — aware, through all the simplicities of Esther and brutalities of Gerard, that a young woman was looking at me, and studying me, and suddenly advancing upon me.

In a sweet and ladylike voice, with a retiring and dignified manner that at once begged pardon for the intrusion and stated its necessity, she asked if I were Royal’s wife, and was assured by me that I had that happiness.

“ I was about leaving a note for him,” she said then, with a soft and sad smile, “ but perhaps you would answer as well. Indeed, it is easier — with a lady. I believe,” she began hastily, with the air of one neglecting personal affairs for the charms of general conversation, “ that you and your husband journey South every year ? ”

We had done so lately, I said in some surprise.

“ And spend some time in Washington, I believe ? May I ask if you are acquainted with Mr. Leigh, there?’' mentioning a high official in the Treasury.

I had not that pleasure, I answered.

“ He is one of our warmest friends,” she said, quite confident, apparently, that I would be gratified to hear it. “ He is in the same house with us. I am sorry you have not met him. But I suppose you know Mr. Dunderhead ? ”

“ The senator ? O yes, slightly.”

“He also is a very dear friend of ours. Indeed, he procured us our positions,” she then remarked, and hesitated a moment, while I wondered what this little confidence in the matter of friendships implied. “ Your husband must be quite familiar with the officials upon the railroads ? ” she said at last, suddenly and interrogatively, and then with a hurried, horrified gasp, “ Do you imagine that he could do me so great a favor, render me, indeed, so great a benefit, as to procure me a free pass there ?”

“ A pass ! ” I exclaimed. “ What in the world should make you think of such a thing? He never had one for himself! ”

“Want made me think of it!” she cried sharply. And then her voice choked as she struggled to say, “ O, I am, we are in such distress ! ”

Of course all my sympathies were in my eyes in a moment.

“We are strangers in a strange place ! ” she cried. “ My husband, myself, my child ! Five hundred miles from home, and without a cent in the world.”

“ My poor child — ” I began to say.

“ O, I knew you would pity me,” she sobbed, bursting into tears. “I saw you had a kind face ; it emboldened me. You see I am not used to such things, I have done it so blunderingly. We had heard of you. We thought if your husband could procure us passes to Washington we should be all right, for there we have friends and work ; and I came to see him myself, instead of letting Mr. Seaton do so, because it is so humiliating to a man. O, do you think he could ? ”

Of course I knew he could n’t. He was n’t acquainted with any of the proper officials, even by sight, that I was aware of. And as for paying the fare of these three people himself, he could no more afford it than he could afford a coach and four. For there were the year’s accounts to settle, and the winter’s clothing to get, and a doctor’s bill as long as the moral law to pay, and the rent, and the coal, and our local charities, and taxes, and business demands, — why, the long and the short of it was that I must n’t let Royal see these people, this woman, or he would beggar himself and embarrass the whole year; and it all swept itself through my brain in a second, and made such a jumble with pity and half-fledged suspicion, that I wanted to cry myself.

The little creature read my face like a bulletin-board. “ I don’t ask you for money, only for help,” she urged. “ If the railroad people will but advance us a pass, we will make it right with them by the close of the month. We are clerks in the departments — ”

“ I can assure you,” said I, “ that what you ask is completely out of my husband’s power. He is not a member of Congress, to have free seats on the Camden and Amboy. But if you go and see the president of your road, and state your case, I do not doubt he would assist you.”

“ It is after business hours,” said she, glancing at the clock. “ 1 should not find him. And we have no money, and nowhere to stay to-night”; and her tone was the tone of despair.

“ I can’t imagine,” said I, with some irritation, “how you allowed yourself to fall into such a situation — ”

“ O, I will tell you,” she cried. “ I see you begin to suspect me. O, you must not.”

“ You said you were clerks in the departments,” said I. “ In that case can you not procure money from Washington ? ”

“ O no, indeed. We are allowed to draw half a month in advance, and we did so before we left. We cannot have another dollar for a fortnight. Then we shall have a plenty. We might go to a hotel and communicate with our friends whom I mentioned ; but our leave is up to-morrow night, and the delay would occasion the loss of our situations. O, you see how complicated the thing is ! We cannot stay, we cannot go, and if we do not go we are lost indeed. I will tell you,” she said again, the tears sparkling on her flushed cheeks and her hands trembling with excitement ; “ we have been married a few years, and we have a little girl, and we could not afford to keep her with us till latterly, when I received an appointment myself.”

“ But,” said I, pleased with my own shrewdness, and then sorry to be so sharp, “ I thought a regulation of the departments forbade the employ of husband and wife.”

“ Influence,” she said, with her sad smile, “ can override many regulations. Mr. Dunderhead procured me my situation, and it is managed so very quietly that hardly any one knows it. We were so glad, so happy, when it was arranged, because that would let us have our little girl with us, — she has been staying with my mother,— and we have been drawing such pictures of our happy life to ourselves, for my work can be done at home, and now it all ends in this ! ” And she broke down in another burst of tears. “ I would n’t have you think we are such fools,” said she presently, wiping her eyes, swallowing her grief, and staring at her handkerchief, “as to come to the city in such a penniless condition ; but we are very poor at home, at my mother’s, and I had not the heart to tell them there ; and Mr. Seaton’s aunt lives here, and we expected temporary aid from her. We have always had it ; she is so fond of him; and we found the house entirely closed and herself absent, we don’t know where ! ”

How could I ask her to take me out and show me the house ? How could I even seem to doubt her word ? How could I put any more probing questions ? I should have felt like the rudest, the most indelicate, the most hard-hearted and unchristian wretch !

“ I could give you plenty of credentials,” she went on, eagerly. “ Mr. Seaton’s father, — you may have heard of him, — he was at the head of the King George Infirmary for the Insane.”

Why, so he was, I remembered. And had just gone to Europe with a patient, as she was saying.

“And though,” she continued, “ Mr. Seaton has plenty of friends belonging in the place, they are all, every one, either out of town or else not to be got at. He has been looking for them all the morning. O, it is mortifying to be obliged to lay your affairs so before a stranger — ”

“ No indeed, indeed ! ” said I, thinking of the little girl and melted by the tears. “ I should be glad to be your friend. I am. But I do not see how the affair of your passage is to be managed exactly. If my husband can do anything at all, he will send you a note the moment be comes in. Where are you staying ? ”

“ O, we are not staying at all ! ” she answered, with fresh tears. “ We are in the street, at the station, anywhere ! ”

“ That is too bad ! ” I cried, with tears myself. “ I will tell you what we can arrange. I am going home in half an hour; it is the last train. I live twenty miles from town, to be sure ; but if you will all come home with me, we will see what is to be done to-night, and do it to-morrow.”

“ How good you are ! ” said she, shaking her head. “ But I could not endure it. No, I could not. And I could not find them in time, either.” And she slowly rose to go. “You must excuse me for troubling you so,” said she; “but I don’t, I don’t know what we are to do ! ”

“ O, stop,” I cried, “ you must not go so! ” I had some money in my pocket-book that Royal had given me to buy the shawl. I needed the shawl, — but, mercy ! what were my needs to hers ? I could send the boy back with the bundle, when he came. It was not enough for the three fares, but it would pay the husband’s and save his losing his place, which was the most important ; and if he himself were there, doubtless he could arrange to keep the other, and send his wife on presently the means to bring the child. I offered it to her. “ Do take it,” said I. “ I wish it was all you want. It is all I have.”

“ O no,” said she. “ It would not pay our way, and anything else is only a sop to Cerberus.” And she went softly out, leaving me dazed and numb, with a stupefying sense of inhumanity and wickedness.

I was about to run after her, to insist upon taking her home with me at least, to do I don’t know' what, and had just sprung to my feet, when a gentleman entered, and hastily announced himself to me as Mr. Seaton.

He was a person of noble physical structure, with an exceedingly handsome face, the features very clearly chiselled, the flesh wholesome, firm, well colored, the eyes brilliant and intelligent, the expression serious but winning. He was dressed, I noticed too, being now alive to circumstances, with the most scrupulous care and neatness, in morning costume, and a netted green tie at his throat and two tiny emeralds on his spotless linen matched exactly the tint of his lustrous eyes. But the nice costume did not arouse any more suspicions ; it was natural he should be well dressed, expecting to see old friends ; nor did the idea of so fine a being’s pledging any valuables in order to satisfy his needs once enter my head ; it was plainly something he never would have thought of either.

“ I met my wife at the door,” he said; “she was gone so long that I became anxious, and I hastened in. I am afraid you must think very vexatious things of us. But I beg to assure you that we are the victims of a most unfortunate concatenation — ”

“ O, anybody might be the same,” said I, embarrassed for him and wishing to save him as much as possible.

“ I think,” said he, “ that my wife has told you of our predicament, for which there is not a shadow of reason. It is,” said he, with an uncomfortable laugh, “ another argument for ‘ the total depravity of inanimate things.’ It really seems like a conspiracy of circumstances. Why my aunt should happen to lock up her house, and my acquaintance should happen to be inaccessible, just as I happen to need funds — You can perhaps imagine the state of mind in which a man must be,” he added directly, looking up with a flash of his eye, “ who with many friends, with money waiting for him, sees his wife reduced to such stern necessity— ” And his voice trembled.

“ I offered your wife this,” said I, for the money was still in my hand, scarcely knowing what I said, and blushing for the man as though I had been the lâche, not he ; “ but she thought as it was not enough for all, it could hardly be of any use — ”

“ I don’t know why she said so,” he replied. “ It would be of the greatest use ; the greatest, I am ashamed to say. I could go on myself by means of it, and leave her in some boardingplace till I could send for her.”

“ Will you take it ? ” then said I, as if it burnt my fingers.

“ I cannot express my sense of obligation,” be answered. “ But so far as money can repay it, the end of the month shall see it repaid.” And he folded it neatly away in his waistcoatpocket, just as Royal entered.

“ This is my husband,” said I. And Mr. Seaton rose at once, gracefully narrating, I presume, his sorry scrape to Royal, though 1 did not hear him, as I was occupied at that moment in sending off the shop-boy with the shawls. When I turned, Royal was saying, “ O, certainly,” as I knew he would, if he only saw and heard the people ; but, to my amazement, concluding his sentence in cautious wise, “ If the circumstances are as you say.” I don’t think Royal liked the emeralds.

“ If, sir ? ” said Mr. Seaton, drawing himself up.

“ Pardon me,” said Royal. “ In such a business transaction I must require the same proofs that your banker would. — Clark ! be so good as to run over to the Custom House and look in the Blue Book for me.— If your names are there, and you can satisfy me of your identity, I shall be most glad to advance any sum in my power.”

“ It would be of no use,” said Mr. Seaton, grimly, while I looked on, forgetful of my share. “ Our names are not there ; for we received our appointments since the publication of the Blue Book.”

“ That is very possible,” said Royal, longing for good excuse to throw his money after mine, of whose end, as yet, though, he knew nothing. “ Perhaps you have some letter or other evidence about you — ”

At this moment Grayson came into the counting-room. And at the same moment a metamorphosis took place in Mr. Seaton such as I have never seen equalled. He seemed to shrink and shrivel under our eyes, his face grew whiter than ashes, his features grew pinched, there came a stoop in his shoulders like that of a man used to a heavy burden ; he sidled to the door, and suddenly vanished as if a trap had opened under him.

“ What’s that fellow doing here ? ” said Grayson.

“ Why ? Do you know him ? ” returned Royal.

“ Know him ? ” said Grayson. “ We were classmates together, and he was expelled from college for theft.”

I never told Royal what became of the money he gave me for the shawl. All shawls look much alike to men. He never knew but I had bought one of cloth of gold ; and unless he learns it here he will remain in ignorance till I do tell him.

We have had, since that day, numberless assaults from our felonious followers, —young women who have written books and expect us to buy an edition in view of a dedication ; young men who declare they have built up a reputation for us and now wish us to build up a fortune for them ; old men requiring to be sent home to our burgh at our transportation; apostate priests failing of subsistence through church tyranny, and insisting upon our obtaining publication for manuscript in which, whether they have apostatized from the Church or no, they plainly have from all the learning, spelling and syntax included, in which the Church is supposed to educate her priests, and among the number, the last adventure, briefer than many of the others, but bolder too, happened in this wise.

A dark and slender gentleman, faultlessly arrayed, with silky Vandyke and mustache shining like a raven’s feathers, calls, one summer day, at our house in the country and meets mamma, sewing in the hall in the pleasant morning draught from door to door. “ Is Royal at home ? ” he inquires, stepping inside like one whose right to do so nobody can think of questioning.

Mamma informs him that Royal is in the city.

“ Indeed ! ” says he. “ That is a disappointment. I had counted on seeing him. Does he go up every day ? ” Mamma informs him.

“ And on what train does he go ? ” Mamma informs him that too.

“ I shall find him in town then, at any rate ? ” he says. “After coming so far I should be grieved to miss him altogether. How delightfully he is situated here!” glancing into the garden. “ Does he like grubbing among the roots and herbs as he did in the old days? It is really charming to see the spot where he has domiciled himself at last; but I should have liked to find him with his household gods around him. Perhaps I ought to introduce myself. I am an old chum of Royal’s. You may have heard him speak of me. My name is Smithers.”

Mamma never has heard Royal speak of him, but it would be violation of all her code of lesser morals to say so ; and she feels that duties of hospitality are incumbent upon her, and she seats Mr. Smithers, and converses with him, and innocently gives him all the information concerning Royal and his friends and his haunts and his ways that he desires, — gives him cake and wine to boot, and entreats him well altogether until he draws on his straw-colored gloves once more, makes his adieux, and leaves for town in the noon train.

Royal was standing at the door of his counting-room, later in the same day, in company with some gentlemen just leaving it, when this faultlessly gotten up young man presented himself before him. “ How are you ? How are you?” he cried eagerly with outstretched hands. “ I ’m delighted to see you. How have you been ? ”

For the life of him Royal could not say who it was.

“ Don’t you remember me ? ” he cried, starting back.

“ I am ashamed to say — ” began Royal.

“ Now I sha’ n’t listen to that ! ” said the gay and laughing stranger, showing his handsome teeth, and still holding Royal’s hand in the most heartwarm manner. “ Think a moment. Come, where did you see me last?”

It passed Royal’s skill to say. He saw a great many faces in the course of the year, that in all the care of his business moved before him like phantasmagoria and left no sign. Yet there seemed to be something familiar in the voice or smile. And then the easy, cordial, Southern manners. “ Was it in Baltimore ? ” said Royal.

“ Baltimore ! ” said the stranger. “ There you have it! The very place. And now whom was it with ? ” still pressing the hand most insinuatingly.

“Why, it could only have been with McVickars, in Baltimore,” said Royal, thinking aloud, and recalling a party at McVickars’s, and a cluster of dark young Cubans and Carolinians in the smoking-room there.

“ To be sure it was with McVickars ! ” said the other triumphantly, with the handsome laugh again. “Why, it’s Smithers!”

Plainly Royal ought to have remembered Smithers ; but they had all been strangers, rather commonplace ones at that; he had seen none of them before or since ; other events had crowded them out of mind. But since here was one of them, and since it was Smithers he invited him in, ready in all good-fellowship to receive any one for whom McVickars stood sponsor.

“ I’m delighted to see you, old boy,” said Smithers, lighting the cigar which Royal offered, and taking his seat. “ I was down at your place to-day, — charming place. Boat a good deal, I saw. What do you do with that garden now in this climate,—grow rheumatisms ? I did n’t see your wife. Mac says she’s like her mother,— stately dame. There’s something glorious about your Northern women as they get along in years ; don’t wither, but blossom, — peachify, some one says. I ’ve heard Mac— That’s a superb cigar! Where do you get them here ? ” From cigars to politics, with such a cool and unconcerned talker, was easy transition ; and after one good bout at politics, which Royal declared Smithers knew nothing about at all, and in which Smithers was graciously willing to be instructed, the two men were the best of companions.

“Do you know,” said Smithers, at last, “ why I was particularly pleased to come across you to-day ? You shall hear. I had my pocket picked yesterday. Why the rascals did n’t take my watch and chain I don't know. They made such a good haul on the other, though, that 1 suppose they thought it would n’t be the fair thing. I was desperate, till I suddenly bethought me that you were somewhere in this region. So I shall have to trouble you for a matter of fifty dollars for a day or two.”

“ Any friend of McVickars can divide with me,” said Royal, and suited the action to the word.

As Royal stepped from the cars that night, the conductor stepped after him and tapped him on the shoulder. “ I forgot to say,” said he, “that a friend of yours, who was out of money, borrowed his passage and five dollars of me, this morning, and said you would settle for it. All right, I suppose ? His name was Smithers.”

And that was the last we ever heard of Mr. Smithers.

We are still young, and I suppose have many years in store; but with such a beginning, what shall the end be ? And, promoted in our ranks, to what ghouls shall we not at last become a prey? Alas! I fear that in telling you our story we are but making a rash advance upon our destiny, whose purpose would be served as well by a simple advertisement:

WANTED. — By two young people, a skilled impostor. Salary not so much an object as the pleasure of being cheated. No bunglers need apply Best of references given and required.

Harriet Prescott Spofford.