“I’ve got to be with Uncle Sam,” was all the reason Bill would give for his action.

CHAPTER XXV.

PRIVATE SECRETARY TO A MILLIONAIRE—­ STUDYING AT EVENING SCHOOL—­ LIVING AMID ELEGANT SURROUNDINGS.

It was now September.  Archie had been in New York the whole summer through, attending carefully to his work on the Evening Enterprise, and continuing his study of stenography.  He had taken occasional trips to Long Branch and Asbury Park on Saturday afternoons, but every other day he spent in working up ideas for the paper, and each evening he devoted to the shorthand school.  By this time, though, he felt that he knew all that was necessary of shorthand, and found himself more free to go about in the evenings.  He visited his friends more frequently, and sometimes spent whole evenings in studying works on English literature, for he was ambitious to know more of the great work he had decided to make his own.  This study was not really work to him, for his interest in everything connected with literature was so great that he found a pleasure in reading even the most classical books on the subject, and of course so much reading of this sort did a great deal to educate his mind along this line of work.

One evening in the early fall, Archie decided to accept the invitation of Mr. Depaw, the railway president, to call.  So he carefully dressed himself in the best he had, and walked up Fifth Avenue and into the side street where the great man had his home.  He rang the bell and presented his card, and waited in the drawing-room for an answer.  The footman was gone but a moment, and returning, announced that the family would be down directly.  Archie was very much pleased that he was to meet the entire family, and looked about him with great interest at the elegant furnishings of the room in which he sat.  He couldn’t help thinking how lovely it must be to have so many books, so many pictures, and so many works of art of every kind.  The boy thought then that he would like to be a wealthy man, just to be able to gratify his desires for beautiful things.

He had to wait only a short time before the genial Mr. Depaw entered the room, accompanied by several members of the family.  Archie was greeted very warmly, and introduced to every one, and then they immediately began an animated conversation, in which Archie soon found himself taking an active part, much to his surprise.  He felt that he had never before realised what a great gift it is to be able to talk entertainingly, and this evening was a revelation to him in the ways of good society.  He found that every one was much interested in the story of his adventures, and he talked more about them than for a long time past.  He was now beginning to feel that his Philippine experiences were an old story, but he learned that they were quite as entertaining as ever to these people.  But they did not talk