With a shake of the hand and a pleasant parting word the man passed on.  That he had mistaken me for my brother was plain enough.  That was an error to which I was accustomed and which it was not my habit to rectify unless the matter seemed important.  But how had I known that this man’s name was Margovan?  It certainly is not a name that one would apply to a man at random, with a probability that it would be right.  In point of fact, the name was as strange to me as the man.

The next morning I hastened to where my brother was employed and met him coming out of the office with a number of bills that he was to collect.  I told him how I had “committed” him and added that if he didn’t care to keep the engagement I should be delighted to continue the impersonation.

“That’s queer,” he said thoughtfully.  “Margovan is the only man in the office here whom I know well and like.  When he came in this morning and we had passed the usual greetings some singular impulse prompted me to say:  ’Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Margovan, but I neglected to ask your address.’  I got the address, but what under the sun I was to do with it, I did not know until now.  It’s good of you to offer to take the consequence of your impudence, but I’ll eat that dinner myself, if you please.”

He ate a number of dinners at the same place—­more than were good for him, I may add without disparaging their quality; for he fell in love with Miss Margovan, proposed marriage to her and was heartlessly accepted.

Several weeks after I had been informed of the engagement, but before it had been convenient for me to make the acquaintance of the young woman and her family, I met one day on Kearney street a handsome but somewhat dissipated-looking man whom something prompted me to follow and watch, which I did without any scruple whatever.  He turned up Geary street and followed it until he came to Union square.  There he looked at his watch, then entered the square.  He loitered about the paths for some time, evidently waiting for someone.  Presently he was joined by a fashionably dressed and beautiful young woman and the two walked away up Stockton street, I following.  I now felt the necessity of extreme caution, for although the girl was a stranger it seemed to me that she would recognize me at a glance.  They made several turns from one street to another and finally, after both had taken a hasty look all about—­which I narrowly evaded by stepping into a doorway—­they entered a house of which I do not care to state the location.  Its location was better than its character.

I protest that my action in playing the spy upon these two strangers was without assignable motive.  It was one of which I might or might not be ashamed, according to my estimate of the character of the person finding it out.  As an essential part of a narrative educed by your question it is related here without hesitancy or shame.