veral switches--of her own
hair--and the bolster commonly called a rat, and sleeking her hair
down hard with oil, she appeared as a boy might who was badly in need
of a haircut. After a light supper, she set out alone for the
residence of Asbury Fuller and at the end of her journey found herself
at the gateway of a somber edifice, which was apparently the only one
in the block that was inhabited. On either side and across the way
were vacant houses, lonesome and forbidding. Indeed, the residence of
Asbury Fuller was itself scarcely less lonesome and forbidding. The
grass of the plot before it was long and unkempt and heavily covered
with mats of autumn leaves. The bricks of the front walk were sunken
and uneven and the steps leading to the high piazza were deeply
warped, as by pools of water that had lain and dried on their unswept
surface through many seasons. The blinds hung awry and the paint on
the great front doors was scaling, and altogether it was a faded
magnificence, this of Asbury Fuller. She pulled the handle of the
front-door bell and in response to its jangling announcement came a
maid.

"Asbury Fuller?" said the maid, omitting the "Mr." Miss Clarissa had
affixed. "Go to the side door around to the right."

Wondering if this were a lodging house and Asbury Fuller had a private
entrance, or if it being his own house he had left word that callers
should be sent to the side door to prevent the delivery of the razors
being seen by others, Clarissa followed the walk through an avenue of
dead syringa bushes and came to the side door. The same maid who had
met her before, ushered her in and presently she found herself in a
small apartment, almost a closet, standing at the back of Asbury
Fuller. But though small, she remarked that the apartment was one of
some magnificence, for on all sides was a quantity of burnished
copper, binding the edges of a row of shelves and covering the whole
top of a broad counter-like projection running along one side of the
wall. Before this, Asbury Fuller was standing, assorting a number of
cut-glass goblets of various sizes and putting them upon silver
salvers, bottles of various colored wines being placed upon each
salver with the goblets. He turned at her entrance and the look of sad
and gloomy abstraction sitting upon his countenance instantly changed
to one of relief and joy.

"At last, at last," he exclaimed, in a deep tone which even more than
his countenance betrayed his r