ey way. Bog tried the latch, and found the door locked. With
instant decision, he caught the top of the door, and vaulted over it,
trusting to fortune not to be caught on the inside. Applying his eye to
the keyhole, he observed the following condition of things:

The shop was a milliner's, beyond all question. It was filled with
articles of ladies' wear, whose names and uses were all unknown to Bog;
while outside, in the air, dangled various patterns of skirts which had
just then come into fashion; and the public and obtrusive exhibition of
which is one of the singularities of our rapid civilization.

Behind the counter stood one of those thin ladies who have dedicated
themselves to the millinery and a single life. At that distance, she
looked to Bog like a perfectly respectable woman, with a sharp eye to
business. Farther on, toward the end of the same counter, was the angel
of his heart, Patty Minford. Her appearance, pale, and therefore more
touchingly beautiful than ever, threw his senses into that sweet flutter
which is the proof and mystery of love. He repeated the vow which he had
made to himself, and dreamed of fulfilling a thousand times, to save her
from harm at the risk of his life. She was folding up articles on the
counter, and packing them into little boxes, and did not look toward
young Van Quintem. Bog thought this a good sign.

The young man leaned over the counter, and addressed some words to her,
to which her lips moved as if in reply, while her eyes were still
downcast on her work. He then smoothed out the crumpled note which he
had carried in his hand, and placed it before her. She started in
amazement, as she remarked the close imitation of her handwriting; and,
having read it, shook her head with a wondering air. Young Van Quintem's
inexpressive face assumed a look of astonishment, and he instantly
walked to the door, and peered up and down the street, and opposite.
Then he nodded to Miss Minford, as if to excuse himself for a moment,
and, darting out of the shop, walked rapidly to the street below, and
then to the one above, passing Bog's hiding place on that side of the
street, and causing that youth to remove his eye from the keyhole for
fear of detection. When he had made this reconnoissance, and satisfied
himself that there was no spy about, he returned to the shop. In the
mean time, some pantomime had been going on between Miss Minford and the
shopwoman, which Bog interpreted to mean that M