y not
to read my books--they might prejudice him in my favor; but in
comparison to certain publishers the average reviewer stands as a
misdemeanant does to a burglar. No, I have said it before and I say it
again, until that copyright law is passed, the Government is guilty of
nothing less than compounding a felony."

Of what had gone before Tristrem had not heard a single word, and these
ultimate phrases which reached him were as meaningless as
church-steeples. He started as one does from a nap, with that shake of
the head which is peculiar to the absent-minded. He was standing, he
discovered, at the entrance to the hotel at which he lodged.

"Don't you agree with me?" Jones asked. "Come and lunch at the Casino.
You will get nothing here. Narragansett cookery is as iniquitous as the
legislature. Besides, at this hour they give you dinner. It is tragic,
on my word, it is."

"Thank you," Tristrem answered, elusively. "I have an appointment
with--with a train." And with this excuse he entered the hotel, and as
soon after as was practicable he returned to town.

It was, he learned, as Jones had said. Mrs. Raritan and Miss Raritan
were passengers on a steamer which had sailed two days before. It was
then Friday. One of the swiftest Cunarders was to sail the following
morning, and it seemed not improbable to Tristrem that he might reach
the other side, if not simultaneously with, at least but a few hours
after the arrival of the Wednesday boat. Such preparations, therefore,
as were necessary he made without delay. As incidental thereto, he went
to the house in Thirty-ninth Street. There he learned, from a squat
little Irishwoman who came out from the area and eyed him with
unmollifiable suspicion, that, like the Narragansett cottage, the house
was to let. The only address which he could obtain from her was that of
a real-estate agent in the lower part of the city. Thither he posted at
once. Yet even there the information which he gleaned was meagre. The
house was offered for a year. During that period, the agent understood,
Mrs. Raritan proposed to complete her daughter's musical education
abroad; where, the agent did not know. The rental accruing from the
lease of the house was to be paid over to the East and West Trust Co.
Further than that he could say nothing. Thereupon Tristrem trudged
hopefully to Wall Street; but the secretary of the East and West was
vaguer even than the agent. He knew nothing whatever on the subj