tly strange in design and workmanship, and apt to betray an
identity.

I slipped it off my little finger and placed it in my vest pocket.

My companion laughed.

"'No sooner said than done,'" he quoted. "You see, George,--any one
who saw you come in to the hotel last night could tell you had not been
travelling for pleasure. The marks of an uncomfortable train journey,
in a colonist car, were sticking out all over you. Now, golf clubs and
a signet ring like that which you were sporting are enough to tell any
man that you have been in the habit of travelling luxuriously and for
the love of it."

I could not help admiring my new friend's method of deduction, and I
thanked him for his kindly interest.

"Not a bit," he continued, "so long as you don't mind. For, it's like
this,--I take it you have left home for some personal reason,--no
concern of mine,--you have come out here to start over, or rather, to
make a start. Good! You are right to start at the bottom of the hill.
But, from the look of you, I fancy you won't stick at anything that
doesn't suit you. You are the kind of a fellow who, if you felt like
it, would tell a man to go to the devil, then walk off his premises.
You see, I don't tab you as a milksop kind of Englishman exactly.

"Well,--out here they don't like Britishers who receive remittances
every month from their mas or pas at home, for they have found that
that kind is generally not much good. Hope you're not one, George?"

"No!" I laughed, rather ruefully, almost wishing I were. "With me, it
is sink or swim. And, I do not mind telling you, Mr. Horsfal, that it
will be necessary for me to leave the hotel to-morrow for less
pretentious apartments and to start swimming for all I am worth."

"Good!" he cried, as if it were a good joke. "How do you propose
starting in?"

"I have already commenced keeping an eye on the advertisements, which
seem to be chiefly for real estate salesmen and partners with a little
capital," I said.

"But, the fact is, I have made an application this morning for
something I thought might suit me. But, even if I am lucky enough to
be considered, the chances are there will be some flies in the
ointment:--there always are."

My friend looked at me, as I thought, curiously.

"To-morrow morning," I went on, "it is my intention to begin with the
near end of the business district and call on every business house, one
after another, until I happen upon something