"He seems to be a seclusive chap," said Welty.

"Yes; and very selfish," said Monroe, quietly. "Does he spend any money?"

"Have no way of knowing--except, perhaps, he pays his board and rent."

"Let us call on him tonight, and initiate him; will you?"

"I should like a little outing in this disagreeable weather, and will be happy to join you," replied Welty, with his green eyes beaming in antic.i.p.ation of a lark.

"Will you call at my place at nine p. m.?"

"I will--whee-e-e!"

Welty Morne retires. The b.u.t.ton is pressed again. Bate Yenger, a.s.sistant to the head bookkeeper, enters. He sits down, and looks indolent. He is a slim chap, with a fair face and black eyes, which show indications of night-hawking.

"Bate," said the impressionless Monroe, "have you met the new secretary after work hours?"

"Have not."

"Know anything of his habits?"

"Nothing."

"Do you want to go on a lark tonight?"

"Wouldn't mind it."

"Then come to my place at nine p. m."

Bate Yenger disappears. Monroe resumes his work. John returns the balance sheet, and hands it to Monroe. Monroe takes it, and scans it over. He sees some check-marks upon it. He folds it up, and puts it away. John remains a moment, as if he would like to speak to Monroe; but Monroe does not speak. John, then, goes out.

Promptly on the hour of nine p. m., Welty Morne and his boon companion, Bate Yenger, called at the apartments of Mr. Monroe at the St. Charles.

That chunk of stiffness they found was ready, and together the three fared forth for a night of rounding.

They called upon John Winthrope in his dingy quarters--a hideous contrast, they thought, to their own bright and luxurious living places.

John was surprised, of course, to see them. Would he go out with them?

Whither? For sight-seeing.

John looked at his open books and papers on his little table, glanced down at himself, half inclined to accept; but very perplexed about it.

He hesitated, and then asked them into his room. They entered, but did not sit down, as there was only one chair, which later was preempted by Welty.

"Why don't you get decent quarters, Mr. Winthrope?" asked Welty, who was a lively and a very talkative fellow.

"Cannot afford it," answered John.

"Oh, bosh! You receive as much, and more, than many of the other young men in our office, and the way they fly one would think they were millionaires' sons," replied Welty.

"I have a mother and father to a.s.sist," said John.

"Won't you go tonight; we will pay the way," insisted the persuasive Welty.

John still hesitated. He pondered a moment, and then replied: "No, thank you; I do not care to go."

"Just tonight, Mr. Winthrope; three is a company, and four is a crowd,"

pursued Welty.

"I thank you very much, Mr. Morne; but really, now, I do not care to go," persisted John.

During this ineffectual conversation, Monroe stood leaning against the door as pa.s.sive as a tombstone, with Bate Yenger leaning awkwardly against the wall near him, looking as vapid as a snake in winter time.

Welty was disconcerted, disappointed, and aggravated. At John's last remark, he tried to hide his displeasure of it beneath a subtle smile that was a cross between sarcasm and disgust. John sat on the edge of his bed in a thoughtless mood, chewing the end of a tooth-pick. All four were silent for an uncomfortable period of time. Then Welty broke the spell.

"So you won't join us?" he asked.

"No; thank you; I do not care to go," answered John.

"Ah, he is not so easy as I thought," said Monroe to himself.

Silence followed. John sat still, masticating his tooth-pick, being little concerned as to how they took his answer. He wanted to be curt to them, by demeanor; and wished they would depart. For reasons of his own, which he considered private, as far as he was concerned, he did not desire their company under any circ.u.mstances. Therefore, while he aimed always to be polite to the triumvirate schemers, he would rather show himself to be a boor than to have them about him.

So, disgusted with John's susceptibility to fall into their trap, and displeased at their own lack of tact, the three gentlemen went rattling down the stairs, and out into the street.

"He's a Sunday-schooler, all right," said Welty, as they lined up side by side, with Monroe in between, to go down the avenue.

"Aw, a cheap skate," said Bate.

After Monroe began to realize the abject failure of his scheme, and after the words of the other gentlemen had percolated through his adamantine head, he remarked, in reply to each of the other's opinion, that Winthrope was a sissy, which application, it is readily seen, was not well placed; then he said: "He is an impeccable good-for-nothing. He needs to be shown a thing or two in this old town--but he will learn all right, like the rest of them."

"You are a poor inveigler," said Welty to Monroe, facetiously.

"My time, like that of all dogs, will come yet," said Monroe.

"Well; I would like to know your motive?" asked Welty.

"Oh, I just wanted to get him limbered up a little," answered the astute one.

Thus being vanquished in his purpose, Monroe excused himself, after they had walked a few blocks, and retreated to his rooms, there to enter upon the duties of outlining a more ingenious campaign toward the destruction of John Winthrope's name, and to ruin his chances for continuing in the office of Jarney & Lowman. His first conceived plan was to get John Winthrope out of the way, in the head office. This he could only hope to do by besmirching his character, or cause him to commit some overt act of deportment that would be laid up against him in the eyes of Mr.

Jarney.

So, after being rebuffed in his first effort, Monroe concluded to take another tack, and would thereafter become and be John's intimate friend, a good fellow towards him, and a hearty supporter of him before the firm, and thereby get results. These things he thought out pretty clearly, and definitely decided that on the morrow he would bombard the fort from another angle.

So on the morrow, as soon as Mr. Winthrope had arrived, he was surprised to receive a polite little note, via the messenger, to call in the office of Mr. Monroe as early as convenient, and without interference in his official capacity. Ever prompt in complying with such informal invitations (which he took it to be, instead of a command), and having time to spare before the arrival of Mr. Jarney, he repaired at once to the sanctum of Mr. Monroe.

That gentleman, John was also surprised to see, had unbended to such proportions, that, when John approached his desk, he arose, and shook hands with him, an heretofore unheard of performance of cordiality on Mr. Monroe's part.

"I have asked you in, Mr. Winthrope," said Monroe, "to apologize for intruding on you last night. It was only a whim of one of the boys out on a lark, with whom, unfortunately, I fell in with at the untimely hour."