"I can talk it over with you
better when you have reached the end. I have things to say, and I shall
not hesitate to say them then."

"When is it most convenient to you to come?" she inquired.

"Any time," he answered. "I don't do much that is really useful. But
wait till you see Shirley. He will atone for the shortcomings you find
in me."

She repeated the word "Shirley," as if to test its sound.

"You are your father's only child, are you not?" he asked, thoughtfully.

"No. I have a sister, Daisy, a little younger than I."

"And has she a literary turn, also?"

"Not in the least."

Archie arose, and Miss Millicent accompanied him to the front door. The
tall negro came to open the portal, but Miss Fern told him, with the
same quality of dislike in her tone which Weil had noticed before, that
he need not wait.

"He is really a magnificent piece of humanity," said Archie, when the
man had disappeared. "I never saw anything quite like him."

"You admire negroes, then?" said the young lady, almost impolitely.

"I like representatives of every race," he answered, as if not noticing
her. "There are interesting specimens in all. I number among my
acquaintances several Chinamen, a Moor, a Mexican, Jews, Portuguese and
Russians innumerable. If that fellow was not in your employ I would
engage him to-morrow, merely as a study."

Miss Fern took the hand he held out to her and set the next meeting for
Saturday evening. Then she said:

"If you want Hannibal, perhaps papa would oblige you. I certainly would
do all I could to persuade him."

CHAPTER VI.

"HOW THE WOMEN STARE!"

The next day Archie Weil lunched with Lawrence Gouger. He wanted to talk
with his friend about the young author and authoress. Gouger listened
with interest to the story he had to relate, and nodded approval when it
appeared that Archie had behaved admirably thus far in relation to Miss
Millicent.

"Do you know anything about Mr. Fern?" he asked, when the other had
reached a period.

"Nothing."

"Well, neither did I, a week ago, but I have taken pains to inform
myself. He is a highly respectable elderly party, who deals in wool. He
married a very beautiful lady, who has now been dead eight or ten years
and he lives altogether in the society of his two daughters. If you
succeed in getting Millicent's book on the counters you will earn his
everlasting gratitude. They say he is not literary enough himself to be
a judge of its me