he blood rolled again
into his face, and he felt an instinctive desire to go at once and seek
out the proper authorities and pay for that surreptitious ride.
Moreover, he resolved that being an honest man now it was his duty so to
do, and that it should be the first item of business to which he would
attend after leaving the cars. Then he glanced about him to see if he
could establish his identity with the little ragged boy. A gentleman
with gray hair and gold spectacles bowed and addressed him.

"Good-morning, Mr. Mallery. Going East far?"

This was the merchant whose store joined their own. He knew nothing
about "Tode Mall," but he held intimate business relations with the
junior partner of the great firm. Even Mr. Hastings bowed stiffly. Mr.
Stephens' partner and the small boy who traveled in his company years
before were two different persons even to him. At one of the branch
stations that gentleman left the train, much to Theodore's regret, as
he had a curious desire to follow him once more in his journeyings and
note the contrasts time had made. Arrived in Albany, he looked with
curious eyes on the familiar and yet unfamiliar streets. Every five
minutes he met men whom he had known well in his boyhood. He recognized
them instantly now. They did not look greatly changed to him, yet not a
living soul knew him. He went into establishments from which he had been
unceremoniously ordered, not to say kicked, years before, and presented
their business card, "Stephens, Mallery & Co.," and was treated by those
same business men with the utmost courtesy and cordiality. He went down
some of the old familiar haunts, and could not feel that they had much
improved. He met a bloated, disfigured, wretched looking man, and
something in the peculiar slouching gate seemed familiar to him. He made
inquiries, and found him to be the person whom he had half surmised, the
old-time friend of his boyhood, Jerry, the only one who had had a word
of half comfort to bestow on him when he landed in Albany that eventful
night after his trip with Mr. Hastings, homeless and desolate. Jerry
stared at him now, a drunken, sleepy stare, and then instinctively stood
aside to let the gentleman pass, never dreaming that they had rolled in
the same gutter many a time. Does it seem strange to you that during all
these years Theodore had not long ere this returned to this old home of
his and sought out that wretched father? Sometimes it seemed very
strange