well
as some new ideas regarding human nature. Sometimes when the visitors
seemed particularly interesting I would venture to peep round the corner
or through the crack of the door, so as to catch a glimpse of them.
Afterward Mr. Chelm often told me more about them, and in instances
where pecuniary aid could be of service allowed me to come to the
rescue; for there were numerous persons who resorted to him for relief,
knowing that he was a charitable man who had helped others. If he had
the leisure, he always lent a sympathetic ear to their stories, and if
he could not aid them was uniformly kind and considerate.

I was struck by the number of applicants for employment. "Give us
something to do, and we can get along. We want work, not money," was the
too frequent petition, for it was just this class of persons whom Mr.
Chelm found it most difficult to assist. So many of them too were
educated and intelligent young men and women, unaccustomed to hardships
and to shift for themselves, driven out of work by the continued
hardness of the times. For nearly five years business had been at a
stand-still, Mr. Chelm told me, and as a consequence property had
depreciated sadly in value, and an immense amount of distress been
caused among people of moderate means. To many a tale of destitution I
thus listened with tears in my eyes, and on more than one occasion was
able to procure at least temporary occupation for the sufferers.

One morning as I was thus sitting hoping for some client to arrive, I
saw through the half open door a young man dressed in the height of
fashion, _bien gante, bien chausse_, and attended by the very ugliest
bull-terrier it had ever been my lot to gaze on, enter Mr. Chelm's
office. I had by this time learned to divine usually the errands of
clients before they began to speak, and I made up my mind that this
handsome young dandy--for he was extremely good-looking to boot--must be
the heir to some large estate which he wished to intrust to the care of
Mr. Chelm, or that he had got entangled with an actress, and was in
search of legal aid to release him from the meshes of the net. In either
event I expected to have the door closed in my face, and the stranger's
secret to remain sealed from me forever. I placed my chair however so
that I should be screened from observation and yet within earshot,
prepared to see and listen as long as should be possible.

The visitor drew a card from a very dainty case and l