My dear sir, what is your name ?" I was disappointed to find he had so little bond with my young lady; and but that it was I who had sought the acquaintance, might have been tempted to retreat.

At the same time, something in the stranger's eye engaged me.
"My name," said I, "is Loudon Dodd; I am a student of sculpture here from Muskegon." "Of sculpture ?" he cried, as though that would have been his last conjecture.

"Mine is James Pinkerton; I am delighted to have the pleasure of your acquaintance." "Pinkerton!" it was now my turn to exclaim.

"Are you Broken-Stool Pinkerton ?" He admitted his identity with a laugh of boyish delight; and indeed any young man in the quarter might have been proud to own a sobriquet thus gallantly acquired.
In order to explain the name, I must here digress into a chapter of the history of manners in the nineteenth century, very well worth commemoration for its own sake.

In some of the studios at that date, the hazing of new pupils was both barbarous and obscene.