, 1886-10-03
Harker groaned. 50 near his OBJECT.

Harker groaned, So near his object
yet so strangely bafied.
On, the agony of that week of suspense
A whole week gone-lostl And hat hor
rid fipkins so jubilant; day by day grow
ing so luxurious in his habits; living OF
the fat of the land; IL his lunches were {
fair sample; talking SO vulgar about let
ting out his MISUNDERSTANDING III
such coarse fashion over him perpetuan-
he would hear 4 80 longer. He felt
II was m~addening him. He won fly
from the ne%ighborhood before he was
tempted to do something desperate.
Bill Harker took a commission on the
road. He visited the west OF England. II
was three months or more before he ven
tured to set his foot in London again.
The first time he did so he encountered
Fipkins, by accident, in Grove road,
Stockwell.
The rivals started. Their meeting was
like the traditional one of the strange cats
in the garnet.
Fipkin's brass, for once, stood him in
good stead. He was the first to speak.
He held out his and cordially.
How are you, old fellows7 he said
frankly, as If nothing was the matter.
whoever would have thought of seeing
you in this part Of the worlds'
'Ho cliiht Hllls III uOl itPti
his friendly advances. In truth. time had
smooth of the raw edges OF his wound.
And then Fipkins looked SO happy he
didn't have the heart to distress him.
They adjourned to the nearest bar, and
In the course of a series of "refreshels,"
Fipkins told of his intended marriage,
which was to take place the next week at
st. Giles church, Camberwell.
1t grated on Harker's feeling to notice
that Fipkins In some sort looked upon the
union as a sacrifice.
"There are property considerations, he
said several times in a half maudlin sort
of way-"property considerations, my
boy; and folks can't afford to lose sight Of
those in hard times like these"
Mercenary wretch How -Harker de-
spised him, even while he fraternized
with What a strange power the fellow
always had over himi-he could neither
understand nor escape from it. He found
1t hard to realize, after Bipkins had left
him, that he had actually promised to be
his "test man" at the wedding. But it
was so; there was the entry in his W
order book-in an unsteady hand-that
Fipkins had insisted on his writing at
the bar. He had not the courage to de-
cline 1t, and, as he had promised, honor
and curiosity both prompted him to see
Tue drama 10 lne END.
AS the two ex-clerks stood waiting for
the brides arrival on the suspicious
morning one might have heard Harker's
heart throb; it beat like a drum with in
tense excitement.
But establishment overpowered every
other feeling when, as the bride entered
the church, a perfect mountain of flnery,
he recognized in her the dragoon-like,
fery-faced boarding house proprietress,
and knew that it was she Fipkins had
chosen from property considerations"
Confused as he felt, Harker could I'M.
derstand That in her case, weighty as she
was, something in the shape of bonus
would be acceptable.
He had little time to think of all this,
however, for the first bridesmaid, he
found to his great joy vas the naneless
onei
Her white-gloved little hand rested on
his trembling arm az they walked down
the aisle after the ceremony, in the wake
of Mr.. and Mrs. Fipkins; and before they
reached the hotel where breakfast was
laid, he discovered, among other things,
that his fair companions name was not
Foussi, but Castleton.
Harker still calls his model. of a wife
Foussi; but the glove he had treasured
did not fit her. Old b., who had picked
1t up, might first nave dropncd =. o.c
thin is cer.:Iin-ne astonished everyone
by marrying, before the year was out, n
mere child, and her hand, as it rested in
his on the wedding day, looked small
enough to ave been his daughters.