press
train, due at three o'clock, had been telegraphed three hours behind
time, and he took his way somewhat disconsolately to a dingy little
hotel to pass the intervening hours as best he might. "Strange!" he
muttered drearily, "that I should have been delayed just here, only
forty miles from home, with not a single earthly object of interest to
help pass the hours away." He went forward to the forlorn little parlor,
where a few sticks of wet wood were sizzling and smoking, and vainly
trying to burn in a little monster of a stove over in one corner.
Theodore flung himself into a seat in front of this attempt at a fire,
kept his overcoat on for the sake of warmth, and looked about him for
some entertainment. He found it promptly. Thrown over the back of a
chair in the opposite corner was a great fur overcoat, with a brilliant
red lining, and an unmistakable something about it that distinguished it
from all other overcoats in the world. Theodore knew at a glance that it
belonged to Mr. Hastings. He started up and went toward it, smiling and
saying within himself: "Is this furry creature my good or evil genius,
this time, I wonder?" Then he went out to the horrible bar-room to make
inquiries. The clerk knew nothing about Mr. Hastings; had never heard
his name as he knew of. There was a man there, a stranger--had been for
two days; he was sick, and they had put him to bed, and they were doing
what they could for him. He had seemed unable to give his name or his
residence. Paralysis, or something of that sort, he believed the doctor
called it. It had begun with a kind of a fit. Yes, that fur overcoat
belonged to him. Theodore requested to be shown immediately to the
stranger's room. Alone, helpless, speechless, in the dingiest and most
comfortless of rooms, he found Mr. Hastings! He went forward with eager,
pitying haste, and spoke to the poor man--no answer, only a pitiful
contortion of the face, and a hopeless attempt to raise the useless
hand. Clearly there was work enough for the next three hours! With the
promptness, not only natural in him, but added to by long habit,
Theodore went to work. Under his orders the room assumed very speedily a
different aspect; the attending physician was sent for and consulted
with; he was a dull little man, but appeared to know enough to say that
he didn't know what to do for the sick man. "It was a curious case; he
had never seen its like before."

"Then why haven't you telegraphed fo