The record-union., 1894-02-17

under the impression that this was first
edition."
1t put Richard Hardy on his mettle, for
he was now sure he was dealing with an
astute collector Of books.
"This trihe, madam, might interest
you," he observed with some dignity,
protfering Dots mascot curio.
She thanked him, took the little book
in her hands and turned its parchment
leaves as leiSurely as ever the Grand
Monarch had done, but her gray eyes
and her now impassiye face gave no be-
trayal of interest or purpose, while Dick
silently FURNISHED his glasses and his
wits of diplomacy, awaiting some sign.
"Have you fixed its price, sir?"
''Its value is well-known. madam" :"
returned Dick solemnly, while mentally
begging absolution for the astounding
whopper he had told.
The lady made no reply, but at once
handed him her card and bank note and
asked the privilege Of taking the book to
her home for examination. The note bore
the legend $780," and the card, Mrs.
Hope, Park Place, Brooklyn"
Certainly, Mrs. Cope. By all means,
Mrs. Lope. No deposit necessary, Mrs.
Pope--Mrs. Rope-Mrs. Hope, [ meanp'
disappeared, leaving Richard Hardy,
while Fahrenheit marked many degrees
below zero, mopping great drops of per-
spiration from his face and head.
Scarcely three hours-they were as
years of suspense to the bookstall pro-
prietor of Frankfort street-had passed,
when the lady returned. 1t was the
effort of his life, but Richard Hardy re-
ceived her in manner which might be
termed stately and affable repose. She
handed him the little curio and he placed
it in it's oiled-silk case in his pocket
Then he returned the bank note and the
card. Mrs. Hope thereupon glanced at
her watch. Both she and Dick, if Dick
could see at all, saw that it was precisely
quarter to three o'clock.
1.-THE banks are not yet closed" she
said casually.
Not yet, Mrs. Hope" Dick calmly an
swered.
She rested a little check book upon
the edge of Dicks stall, with stylo-
graphic pen wrote in the date, ito
bearer" and her own signature in a
round, masculine hand. This done, she
looked up at Dick, who was, by this time,
crowding the brick wall behind him for
support, with
''Well?"
Frankly. madam, it is quite painful
to be exact when dealing with aady.
| Write your own price on the check. Per-
haps we will not differ"
What she wrote his daZed eyes did not
see--perhaps never saw; but he mastered
himself sufficiently to nod his head, to
take the check, to hand the lady the GU
rio, to see her turn ard lose herself in the
crowd thronging the bridge entrance, to
stagger to the Nassau Bank, where a
ruddy faced paying-teller counted out for
his slip of paper great piles of bills; to
climb to certain near real estate office,
and, as in dream, exchange only a few
of those bills for sealed and taped docu-
ment certifying his ownership OF a cer-
tain little farm and cottage home; to re-
turn and gather up his remaining books
and that clicking table, which he will re-
tain as a blessed memento his whole life
long: to call carriage; still, as in a
dream, to find the Spuyten Duyvel Flats
and its Ninth Floor, Rear, with it's
blessed, home waiting and now delirious
souls within; and. finally, through times
winter storms, from which all dread had
gone, TO superintend the most ecstatic
moving from apartment prison to
blessed home that had ever been the lot
of man, while the heading of the new
stationary of one literator's family, just