to do right. Come back Monday and get your money; and I wouldn't
stay to-night after six o'clock, if I was you, but go home and
rest. If you can't get a job as good as this inside of a day or
two, I think my sister can get one for you in her place; but you
won't stay here if you take my advice.

"Yours truly,

"J. P.

"P.S. Please don't show this, or I'd lose my job; and be sure to
come Monday evening for your money."

I made at once for the cloak-room. When I emerged, a moment later, it
was to find the narrow passage obstructed by one of the big soiled-linen
trucks, over which "J. P." bent industriously, as if he hadn't another
thought in the world beyond the sorting of table-cloths and napkins.
Suddenly he lifted up his lank frame, and seeing one of his workpeople
making her escape, he called out:

"It's not six o'clock yet!"

"I don't care if it isn't; I am going home," I replied promptly.

"What's the matter?" he asked in a loud voice, and then, as he drew
near, added in an undertone:

"You read my note?"

"Yes," I replied.

"S'pose you kind of wonder at me doing it?" he went on, moving with me
toward the staircase.

"No; I guessed right away," I answered.

We had now reached the top of the stairs leading to the street door, and
were out of ear-shot of the busy workroom. The curious faces and craning
necks were lost to us through an interposing veil of steam. The foreman
grasped my extended hand in a limp, hasty clasp as I began to move down
the steps.

"You guessed part, but not all," he whispered, turning away.

I dragged myself to the end of the block and turned into Lexington
Avenue just as the six-o'clock whistles began to blow. So much I
remember very distinctly, but after that all is an indistinct blur of
clanging street-cars, of jostling crowds. I do not know whether I had
lost my senses from the physical agony I was enduring, though still able
to perform the mechanical process of walking, or whether it was a case
of somnambulism; but I know that I walked on, all unconscious of where I
was going, or of my own identity, until I came in collision with some
one, and heard a feminine voice beg my pardon. Then a little cry, and
two arms were thrown about me, and I looked up into the smiling face of
Minnie Plympton--Minnie Plympton as large as life and unspeakably
stunning in a fr