hysician, he had asked for
a week more to spend in quiet at his home in the shades of his alma
mater in a placid old German town. Stopping at Berne a few hours after
leaving his friends on Lac Leman, Mr. Forrest found the quaint old
capital crowded. A congress of Socialists had been called, and from all
over Europe the exponents of the Order were gathered, and almost the
first voice to catch his ear as Forrest strolled through the throng in
the open platz near the station was high-pitched, querulous, and oddly
familiar. Turning sharply the officer came face to face with Mr.
Elmendorf, still presumably recuperating in the shades of the university
at Jena; and that night Mr. Elmendorf called upon him at his hotel.

"I found myself so much better," said he, "that I decided to push ahead,
and, still availing myself of my leave, to stop and see some of these
most interesting old Helvetic cities. My coming here to-day was
fortuitous, yet possibly unfortunate. Mr. Allison has a deep-rooted
prejudice against anything of this kind,--against anything, I may say,
that has a tendency to improve the condition of the laboring man,--and,
while I have nothing to shrink from in the matter, I prefer not to
offend the sensibilities, whether right or wrong, of my employer, and
therefore should, on his account, ask that you make no mention, should
you write, of having seen me here." And Elmendorf waited a moment.

"I shall not be apt to write," said Forrest, coldly, after a pause.

"Well--in case you--you see any of the family again. If it's all the
same to you----"

"I shall not volunteer any information, Mr. Elmendorf; but should I ever
be asked the direct question, since you have nothing to shrink from in
the matter, there need be, I presume, no hesitancy in my saying that I
saw you here."

"Oh, not at all,--not at all," was the answer, though in tone by no means
cheery or confident; and Elmendorf departed with the conviction that
Forrest did not like him,--which was simply a case of reciprocity.

There was yet another meeting, as unexpected as its predecessors,
between the Allisons and Mr. Forrest, and this was of all perhaps the
most decisive. Forrest's leave was soon to expire. He was returning from
Vienna to Paris, and met Allison senior at Basle. The Bohemian waters,
or the rest and regimen, or both combined, had greatly benefited the
merchant. His manner was brisk and buoyant, his face shone with health
and content. He was co