had fallen like a summons.
I sat briskly up, and as I did so my eyes rested on the figure of a lady
in a brown jacket and carrying a paint-box. By her side walked a fellow
some years older than myself, with an easel under his arm; and alike by
their course and cargo I might judge they were bound for the gallery,
where the lady was, doubtless, engaged upon some copying. You can
imagine my surprise when I recognised in her the heroine of my
adventure. To put the matter beyond question, our eyes met, and she,
seeing herself remembered, and recalling the trim in which I had last
beheld her, looked swiftly on the ground with just a shadow of
confusion.

I could not tell you to-day if she were plain or pretty; but she had
behaved with so much good sense, and I had cut so poor a figure in her
presence, that I became instantly fired with the desire to display
myself in a more favourable light. The young man, besides, was possibly
her brother; brothers are apt to be hasty, theirs being a part in which
it is possible, at a comparatively early age, to assume the dignity of
manhood; and it occurred to me it might be wise to forestall all
possible complications by an apology.

On this reasoning I drew near to the gallery door, and had hardly got in
position before the young man came out. Thus it was that I came face to
face with my third destiny, for my career has been entirely shaped by
these three elements--my father, the capitol of Muskegon, and my friend
Jim Pinkerton. As for the young lady, with whom my mind was at the
moment chiefly occupied, I was never to hear more of her from that day
forward--an excellent example of the Blind Man's Buff that we call life.

CHAPTER III

TO INTRODUCE MR. PINKERTON

The stranger, I have said, was some years older than myself: a man of a
good stature, a very lively face, cordial, agitated manners, and a grey
eye as active as a fowl's.

"May I have a word with you?" said I.

"My dear sir," he replied, "I don't know what it can be about, but you
may have a hundred if you like."

"You have just left the side of a young lady," I continued, "towards
whom I was led (very unintentionally) into the appearance of an offence.
To speak to herself would be only to renew her embarrassment, and I
seize the occasion of making my apology, and declaring my respect, to
one of my own sex who is her friend, and perhaps," I added, with a bow,
"her natural protector."

"You are a countryman of m