He had never been clerk, because his literature
went no further than the ability to write his name, and to read a
passage of the constitution in qualifying for the suffrage. He did
not like the new order of things, but he was without a party, and
helpless to do more than neglect the gong-bell when he had reason to
think Lemuel had sounded it.
About eleven o'clock the law-student came in with the two girl art-
students, fresh from the outside air, and gay from the opera they
had been hearing. The young man told Lemuel he ought to go to see
it. After the girls had opened their door, one of them came running
back to the elevator, and called down to Lemuel that there was no
ice-water, and would he please send some up.
Lemuel brought it up himself, and when he knocked at the door, the
same girl opened it and made a pretty outcry over the trouble she
had given him. "I supposed, of course, Jerry would bring it," she
said contritely; and as if for some atonement, she added, "Won't you
come in, Mr. Barker, and see my picture?"
Lemuel stood in the gush of the gas-light hesitating, and the law-
student called out to him, jollily, "Come in, Mr. Barker, and help
me play art-critic." He was standing before the picture, with his
overcoat on and his hat in his hand. "First appearance on any
stage," he added; and as Lemuel entered, "If I were you," he said,
"I'd fire that porter out of the hotel.
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