After several minutes she said abruptly, "You're welcome." There was a silence, finally broken by a long, gasping sigh.

Astonished, he looked at the girl.

Her eyes were set unfathomably upon his pink tie; the wand had dropped from her nerveless hand, and she stood rapt and immovable.

She started violently from her trance.

"Ain't you goin' to finish your coffee ?" she asked, plying her instrument again, and, bending over him slightly, whispered: "Say, Eph Watts is over there behind you." At a table in a far corner of the room a large gentleman in a brown frock coat was quietly eating his breakfast and reading the "Herald." He was of an ornate presence, though entirely neat.