s hand the glass of
sparkling wine, and thereby roused afresh the demon who was only
slumbering within him--he came out from the grand mansion disgusted,
frightened at his broken resolves, and yet, towering above every other
feeling, was the awful desire to have more of the poison; and what would
have been the closing scene of that visit home, but for one thing,
Pliny in his sane moments next day shuddered to think. The one thing
was, that Theodore, first worried, and then alarmed at his friend's long
stay, finally started in search of him, and took care that their ride
down town should be in the same car, and by coaxings and beguilings, and
also by force of a stronger will, enticed him home, and petted him
tenderly through the fiery headache which the one glass and the
tremendous excitement had induced.

The second visit was the more dangerous, and fraught with direr
consequences. Theodore was unexpectedly detained by pressing business,
and Pliny seized upon that unfortunate evening in which to go home; and
he reeled back to his room at midnight, just sense enough left to find
his way home, with the aid of a policeman.

Theodore sat up during the rest of that long, weary night, and bathed
the throbbing temples, and soothed as best he could the crazed brain,
and groaned in spirit, and prayed in almost hopeless agony; yet, while
he prayed, his faith arose once more, and once more the assurance seemed
to come to him that Christ had not died for this soul in vain.

There was one important matter that occurred during the winter. Over the
doors of Mr. Stephens' dry-goods establishment had hung for a dozen
years the sign: "Stephens & Co.," the "Co." standing for a branch house
in Chicago. It was a glowing April morning in which Theodore and Pliny,
both a little belated by a business entanglement of bills and figures
that had taken half the night to set straight, were rushing along with
rapid strides. They had left the street-car at the corner, and the hight
of their present ambition was to reach the store before the city clock
struck again, which thing it seemed on the point of doing, when suddenly
both came to a halt and stared first at the store opposite, and then at
each other in speechless amazement. The familiar sign was gone, and in
its place there glittered and sparkled in the crisp air and early
sunshine a new one--

"STEPHENS, MALLERY & CO."

Theodore rubbed his eyes, and stared in speechless wonder, w