aurant.

As usual, the head clerk ordered his bottle of claret, and, as it was
brought on, he offered it to Arthur. An expression of ineffable disgust
crossed the youth's face as he refused it, which Wilkins remarked with a
quiet, half-concealed smile.

It was with a racking headache and a fevered frame, that Arthur took his
place in the store that morning. He could not plead illness as a pretext
for absence, for there was one who he knew would be there that knew his
secret all too well, and he could not trust him with it. As there were
but few customers in that morning, however, he drew a stool behind the
counter, and seated himself; an act which placed at defiance one of the
strictest rules of the establishment.

He had scarcely done so when Mr. Delancey entered the door, and passed
up between the lines of clerks, with his cold eyes, as usual, turning
rapidly hither and thither, never looking for the right, but always for
the wrong.

As his glance fell upon Arthur he stopped short, and, in a tone loud
enough to be heard all over the store, exclaimed:--

"Haven't you been here long enough, young man, to know better than to
sit down during business hours?"

Arthur rose and put away his stool with a flushed cheek, stammering out
something about not feeling quite well that morning.

"It's very evident," returned the merchant, running his practised eye
over the wan lines of Arthur's face, "that you've been having a Sunday
night spree, in order, I s'pose, to have a Monday morning benefit. But
it won't do here; stick to your post, and if I catch you in that
lounging position again, you lose your place."

Without another word the merchant walked to the big desk, holding the
head of his walking stick against his lips as he went.

Arthur raised his eyes, and although he had striven all the morning to
avoid it, he caught the gaze of Charley Quirk fixed upon him, and
received a quick, sly wink from his left eye.

That wink affected him like a blast of winter wind, and he felt chilled
all over. The thought rushed upon him, too, that Charley had been
keeping up an artillery of winks like that, to the other clerks, while
Mr. Delancey was speaking, and he was assured that his case was
understood throughout the house.

Wilkins, who had been regarding him steadily from behind the open door,
stepped down from his place, and, sauntering towards the proprietor,
addressed a few words to him in an under tone.

The merchant no