ul! We will see to it
at once.'

The interview ended, after some further conversation, in a manner most
satisfactory.

* * * * *

It was a magnificent autumnal afternoon, the second week of October,
when Hiram Meeker, by previous appointment, called at the residence of
the Rev. Augustus Myrtle. The house was built on to the church, so as to
correspond in architecture, and exhibited great taste in exterior as
well as interior arrangement. Hiram walked up the steps and boldly rang
the bell. He had improved a good deal in some respects since his passage
at arms with Dr. Chellis, and while under the auspices of Mr. Bennett.
He had laid aside the creamy air he used so frequently to assume, and
had hardened himself, so to speak, against contingencies. I was saying
he marched boldly up and rang the bell.

A footman in unexceptionable livery opened the door. Mr. Myrtle was
engaged, but on Hiram's sending in his name, he was ushered into the
front parlor, and requested to sit, and informed that Mr. Myrtle would
see him in a few minutes. This gave Hiram time to look about him.

It so happened that it was the occasion of a preliminary gathering for
the season (there had been no meeting since June) of those who belonged
to the 'Society for the Relief of Reduced Ladies of former Wealth and
Refinement.' This 'relief' consisted in furnishing work to the
recipients of the _bounty_ at prices about one quarter less than they
could procure elsewhere, and without experiencing a sense of obligation
which these charitable ladies managed to call forth.

There was already in the back parlor a bevy of six or eight, principally
young, fine-looking, and admirably dressed women.

Arrayed in the most expensive silks, of rich colors, admirably
corresponding with the season, fitted in a mode the most faultless to
the exquisite forms of these fair creatures, or made dexterously to
conceal any natural defect, they rose, they sat, they walked up and down
the room, greeting from time to time the new comers as they arrived.

The conversation turned meanwhile on the way the summer had been spent,
and much delicate gossip was broached or hinted at, but not entered
into. Next the talk was about dress. The names of the several
fashionable dressmakers were quoted as authority for this, and
denunciatory of that. Congratulations were exchanged: 'How charmingly
you look--how sweet that is--what a lovely bonnet!'

All this