must confess that I found those figures most exhilarating. Our
little bonus, too, will be worth having."

Later on, they found their way to a restaurant in the Strand, where
Mr. Jarvis ate and drank perhaps better than he had ever done in his
life. The evening to him was one of unalloyed pleasure, and he was
genuinely disappointed when Arnold pleaded an engagement as an
excuse for not finishing up at a music-hall. About nine o'clock the
two men parted, Mr. Jarvis to spend the rest of the evening alone,
with a big cigar in his mouth and an unaccustomed feeling of levity
in his head. Arnold, after a moment's hesitation, walked slowly back
to his empty rooms.

So this was success! Without a friend in the world, without
training or any practical knowledge of life, his feet were firmly
planted upon the ladder. He had stifled all sorts of nameless
ambitions. He had set his teeth and done what appeared to be his
duty. Now it seemed to him that he had come to a pause. He drew up
his sofa to the window of his sitting-room and looked downward.
Somehow or other, the depression against which he had struggled all
the evening seemed only intensified by what he saw below. An early
autumn had stripped bare the leaves from the scanty trees; the sky
was gray and starless. Even the lights along the river front seemed
to burn with a dull and uninspiring fire. He looked around him and
his depression became an almost overmastering sensation. He hated
the sight of his empty room, the phantom thoughts that would light
upon his shoulder, the sofa upon which he was sitting alone, the
memory of the things which he might have said to Ruth in the days
when the opportunity was his. For a moment he even thought of Mr.
Jarvis at the music-hall alone, the welcoming lights, the pleasant
warmth, the music, the cheerful throngs of people. Better anything,
he told himself, than this brooding! A sudden almost reckless
impulse called him back again into the streets, only to pass away
the same moment with the vision of Ruth's pale face by his side, her
eyes alternately gazing down the lighted way and seeking his, her
fingers grasping his hand. His head sank forward into his hands. He
was alone!

He sat up suddenly with a start. The inner door of the room had
opened and was softly closed again. A familiar voice addressed him.

"I find your habits, my young friend, somewhat erratic," Sabatini
remarked. "Your supply of common necessaries, too, seems limited