It was, perhaps, on this occasion that Mr. Thompson stayed later than usual.  As he turned his face toward the city, lights were beginning to twinkle ahead, and a fierce wind, made visible by fog, drove him forward, or, lying in wait, charged him angrily from the corners of deserted suburban streets.  It was on one of these corners that something else, quite as indistinct and malevolent, leaped upon him with an oath, a presented pistol, and a demand for money.  But it was met by a will of iron and a grip of steel.  The assailant and assailed rolled together on the ground.  But the next moment the old man was erect; one hand grasping the captured pistol, the other clutching at arm’s length the throat of a figure, surly, youthful, and savage.

“Young man,” said Mr. Thompson, setting his thin lips together, “what might be your name?”

“Thompson!”

The old man’s hand slid from the throat to the arm of his prisoner, without relaxing its firmness.

“Char-les Thompson, come with me,” he said, presently, and marched his captive to the hotel.  What took place there has not transpired, but it was known the next morning that Mr. Thompson had found his son.

It is proper to add to the above improbable story, that there was nothing in the young man’s appearance or manners to justify it.  Grave, reticent, and handsome, devoted to his newly found parent, he assumed the emoluments and responsibilities of his new condition with a certain serious ease that more nearly approached that which San Francisco society lacked, and—­rejected.  Some chose to despise this quality as a tendency to “psalm-singing”; others saw in it the inherited qualities of the parent, and were ready to prophesy for the son the same hard old age.  But all agreed that it was not inconsistent with the habits of money-getting, for which father and son were respected.

And yet, the old man did not seem to be happy.  Perhaps it was that the consummation of his wishes left him without a practical mission; perhaps—­and it is the more probable—­he had little love for the son he had regained.  The obedience he exacted was freely given, the reform he had set his heart upon was complete; and yet, somehow, it did not seem to please him.  In reclaiming his son, he had fulfilled all the requirements that his religious duty required of him, and yet the act seemed to lack sanctification.  In this perplexity, he read again the parable of the Prodigal Son,—­which he had long ago adopted for his guidance,—­and found that he had omitted the final feast of reconciliation.  This seemed to offer the proper quality of ceremoniousness in the sacrament between himself and his son; and so, a year after the appearance of Charles, he set about giving him a party.  “Invite everybody, Char-les,” he said, dryly; “everybody who knows that I brought you out of the wine-husks of iniquity, and the company of harlots; and bid them eat, drink, and be merry.”