A RETURN 235 



back to enjoy Dick's letter, but promptly sat up 

 with a jerk as I read this brief but astonishing 

 message. 



Aug. 6, 190- 



DEAR OLD MAN, I have drawn on you for 

 two hundred and fifty dollars. Please honor draft 

 as I must have the money. Will explain every- 

 thing when I get home which will be on Thursday 

 next at about six o'clock. I am not coming alone, 

 for I shall bring a young lady with me. You can- 

 not help loving her as I do. 



Yours, 



DICK. 



I looked out on the square without seeing any- 

 thing. Then I took up the letter again ; but the 

 page shook so I could n't read a word. I took a 

 turn round the office, gulped down a glass of 

 water, took a fierce grasp of myself, and this time 

 read the letter through from date to signature. 

 Then I sat in the window trying to realize it. 

 Dick married ! to a girl I had never seen, or heard 

 of, and knew nothing about ! Perhaps to a de- 

 signing, elderly woman, possibly a widow, who 

 knew how to marshal her attractions so as to 

 bewilder and dazzle a boy of nineteen. What 

 would become of his future, his law studies, 

 his partnership with me, our joint productions in 

 the way of briefs, declarations, rejoinders, sur- 



