be at the office to-morrow until evening, but will you wait
for me?"

"Yes."

"And when I come, I'll be myself."

"Be yourself? Who are you now?"

"Another man."

"Oh, then I shall be glad to see you."

"I don't know as to that. You may have strong objections to my real
self."

"You are _so_ mysterious."

"To-day, yes; to-morrow, no."

He was leaning back, blowing rings of smoke, and was looking up at
them.

"Perhaps I shouldn't say it," she said, "but during the last three
months you have appeared stranger than ever."

"Yes," he drawlingly replied, "for during the last three months it was
natural that I should be stranger than ever."

"I do wish I knew what you mean."

"And when you have been told you may wish you had never known."

"Is it so bad as that?"

"Worse."

"Worse than what?"

"Than anything you imagine."

"Oh, you are simply trying to tease me, Mr. Witherspoon."

"Do you think so? Then we'll say no more about it."

"Oh, but that's worse than ever. Well, I don't care; I can wait."

They talked on subjects in which neither of them was interested, but
sympathy was in their voices. Gradually--yes, now it seemed for
months--they had been floating toward that fern-covered island in the
river of life where a thoughtless word comes back with an echo of
love; where the tongue may be silly, but where the eye holds a
redeemed soul, returned from God to gaze upon the only remembered
rapture of this earth.

She went with him to the head of the stairway. "Don't leave the office
before I come," he called, looking back at her.

"You know I won't," she answered.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

TOLD HIM A STORY.

At the appointed time, the next day, George Witherspoon was waiting in
his library. DeGolyer came in a cab, and when he got out, he told the
driver to wait.

"Where is your friend?" Witherspoon asked as DeGolyer entered the
room.

"He'll be here within a few minutes."

"Confound him, I'm getting sick of his peculiarities."

The merchant sat down; DeGolyer stood on the hearth-rug. The time was
come, and he had been strong, but now a shiver crept over him.

"My friend told me a singular story to-day."

"I don't doubt it; and if his stories are as singular as he is, they
must he marvelous."

"This story _is_ marvelous, and I think it would interest you. I will
give it to you briefly. There were two young men in a foreign
country"--

"I wish he was in a foreign country. I can't