ath I'm going to
quit the law and blow the dust off of some of my own ideals; it's thick,
I can tell you!"

This was seeing Fitch in a new aspect. Dan was immensely pleased by the
lawyer's friendliness, and he felt that his counsel was sound.

Fitch broke in on the young man's thoughts to say:--

"By the way, you know where I live? Come up and dine with me to-morrow
at seven if you're free. My folks are away and I'd like to swap views
with you on politics, religion, baseball, and great subjects like that."

Dan wrote his acceptance of Bassett's offer that night.

CHAPTER X

IN THE BOORDMAN BUILDING

Harwood opened the office in the Boordman Building, and settled in it
the law books Bassett sent from Fraserville. The lease was taken in
Dan's name, and he paid for the furniture with his own check, Bassett
having given him five hundred dollars for expenses. The Boordman was one
of the older buildings in Washington Street, and as it antedated the era
of elevators, only the first of its three stories was occupied by
offices. Its higher altitudes had fallen to miscellaneous tenants
including a few telegraph operators, printers, and other night workers
who lodged there for convenience. Dan's immediate neighbors proved to be
a shabby lawyer who concealed by a professional exterior his real
vocation, which was chattel mortgages; a fire insurance agency conducted
by several active young fellows of Dan's acquaintance; and the office of
a Pittsburg firm of construction contractors, presided over by a girl
who answered the telephone if haply it rang at moments when the heroes
of the novels she devoured were not in too imminent peril of death.

This office being nearest, Dan went in to borrow a match for his pipe
while in the midst of his moving and found the girl rearranging her hair
before a mirror.

"That's as near heart disease as I care to come," she said, turning at
his "Beg pardon." "There hasn't been a man in this place for two weeks,
much less a woman. Yes, I can stake you for a match. I keep them for
those insurance fellows--nice boys they are, too. You see," she
continued, not averse to prolonging the conversation, "our business is
mostly outside. Hear about the sky-scraper we're building in Elwood?
Three stories! One of the best little towns in Indiana, all right. Say,
the janitor service in this old ark is something I couldn't describe to
a gentleman. If there's anything in these microbe fairy stories w