“I’ll help you through, Enos,” said his wife, encouragingly; “and besides, my role in the farce was no better than yours.  Let us resuscitate, for to-night only, the constitution of the A.C.”

“Upon my word, a capital idea!  But we shall have to initiate Ned.”

Mr. Johnson merrily agreeing, he was blindfolded and conducted into another room.  A heavy arm-chair, rolling on casters, struck his legs in the rear, and he sank into it with lamb-like resignation.

“Open your mouth!” was the command, given with mock solemnity.

He obeyed.

“Now shut it!”

And his lips closed upon a cigar, while at the same time the handkerchief was whisked away from his eyes.  He found himself in Mr. Billings’s library.

“Your nose betrays your taste, Mr. Johnson,” said the lady, “and I am not hard-hearted enough to deprive you of the indulgence.  Here are matches.”

“Well,” said he, acting upon the hint, “if the remainder of the ceremonies are equally agreeable, I should like to be a permanent member of your order.”

By this time Mr. and Mrs. Billings, having between them lighted the lamp, stirred up the coal in the grate, closed the doors, and taken possession of comfortable chairs, the latter proclaimed,—­

“The Chapter (isn’t that what you call it?) will now be held!”

“Was it in ’43 when you left home, Ned?” asked Mr. B.

“Yes.”

“Well, the A.C. culminated in ’45.  You remember something of the society of Norridgeport, the last winter you were there?  Abel Mallory, for instance?”

“Let me think a moment,” said Mr. Johnson, reflectively.  “Really, it seems like looking back a hundred years.  Mallory,—­wasn’t that the sentimental young man, with wispy hair, a tallowy skin, and big, sweaty hands, who used to be spouting Carlyle on the ‘reading evenings’ at Shelldrake’s?  Yes, to be sure; and there was Hollins, with his clerical face and infidel talk,—­and Pauline Ringtop, who used to say, ’The Beautiful is the Good.’  I can still hear her shrill voice singing, ‘Would that I were beautiful, would that I were fair!’”

There was a hearty chorus of laughter at poor Miss Ringtop’s expense.  It harmed no one, however; for the tar-weed was already thick over her Californian grave.

“Oh, I see,” said Mr. Billings, “you still remember the absurdities of those days.  In fact, I think you partially saw through them then.  But I was younger, and far from being so clear-headed, and I looked upon those evenings at Shelldrake’s as being equal, at least, to the symposia of Plato.  Something in Mallory always repelled me.  I detested the sight of his thick nose, with the flaring nostrils, and his coarse, half-formed lips, of the bluish color of raw corned-beef.  But I looked upon these feelings as unreasonable prejudices, and strove to conquer them, seeing the admiration which he received from others.  He was an oracle on the