nocent, doctor. Its no use. I sent you on a
fool's errand to New York; and it was but natural that you should seek
to pay me back in my own coin. But I was too wide awake for you
entirely. It takes a sharp man to catch me."

"You're certainly too wide awake for me now," said Doctor Grimes. "Will
you please be serious and explain yourself."

"Last April a year, you received a letter from New York, to the effect
that if you would call at a certain place in Wall Street, you would
hear something to your advantage?"

"I did," replied the doctor.

"Well."

"I called, accordingly, and received information which has proved
greatly to my advantage."

"What?" Bunting looked surprised.

"The gentleman upon whom I called was a leading director in ----
Hospital, and in search of a Resident Physician for that establishment.
I now fill that post."

"Is it possible?" Bunting could not conceal his surprise, in which
something like disappointment was blended. "And you did not write a
similar letter to me last April?" he added.

"I am above such trifling," replied the doctor, in a tone that marked
his real feelings on that subject. "A man who could thus wantonly
injure and insult another for mere sport, must have something bad about
him. I should not like to trust such a one."

"Good morning, doctor," said Bunting. The two gentlemen bowed formally
and parted.

If the doctor did not send the letter, from whom could it have come?
This was the question that Bunting asked himself immediately. But no
satisfactory answer came. He was puzzled and uncomfortable. Moreover,
the result of the doctor's errand to New York--which had proved any
thing but a fool's errand--was something that he could not understand.

"I wonder if I hadn't better call on Wilde & Lyon?" said he to himself,
at length. "Perhaps the letter was no trick, after all."

Bunting held a long argument, mentally, on the subject, in which all
the pros and cons were fully discussed. Finally, he decided to call at
the place referred to in his letter, and did so immediately on reaching
this decision. Still, fearing that the letter might have been a hoax,
he made some few purchases of articles for his store, and then gave his
name.

"Thomas Bunting!" said the person with whom he was dealing. "Do you
reside in the city?"

Bunting mentioned his place of residence.

"Did you never receive a letter from this house, desiring to see you?"

"I did," replied Bunting; "but a