A profitable speculation in the morning had brought the former into a state of great complacency, and a good dinner had done all that was required for the repose of the latter.

He was in that delicious, half-asleep, half-awake condition, which, occurring after dinner, is so very pleasant.

The newspaper, whose pages at first possessed a charm for his eye, had fallen, with the hand that held it, upon his knee.

His head was gently reclined backward against the top of a high, leather-cushioned chair; while his eyes, half-opened, saw all things around him but imperfectly.

Just at this time the door was quietly opened, and a lad of some fifteen or sixteen years, with a pale, thin face, high forehead, and large dark eyes, entered.