"How old are you?" asked Hume. "Twenty-five?" "Twenty-four." "What age would you prefer your secretary to be?" "About the same. I could not endure an old maid, and I do not wish to undertake the care of a child." "Won't it be hard to find a woman of twenty-four years with the skill and judgment that your situation seems to require?" "We shall see. Some of these girls who are obliged to earn their living develop wonderful self-possession." He nodded, as if he could not dispute this. "Well, Don," he said, after a thoughtful pause, "I am going to be candid with you. The scheme you have outlined would be considered, as you must know, by nine-tenths of our friends, as absolutely senseless. To me it really has some points in its favor, if it can be carried out. You have left the advertisement for insertion? Very well. If you like to trust me so far, bring a batch of your answers here next Tuesday and we will go over them together. There will be a certain per centum that we shall both agree are not worth attention. We will classify the others, and pick out a dozen or so to look up. My time, my services, are at your disposal. The Law is not pressing me particularly just now, and I shall be glad if I can be of use to anybody." I accepted the proposition with delight. "And now," added Hume, "come over and get a drink." But this I was obliged to decline. I had made a solemn promise to Dr. Chambers, nearly a year before, that there were two things from which I would refrain for twelve whole months; and one of them was drinking anything of an alcoholic nature between meals, or stronger than claret even then. This I explained to Harvey, with the additional information that I had not broken my pledge and that the time specified would expire within three weeks. "Meet me on the day it is up and let me see you quaff your first Manhattan," he said, laughingly. "If I have good luck I shall be far away, on the Briny," I answered. "I shall begin very gingerly, wherever I am. I would rather shoot myself to-night than get into the condition I was when Chambers squeezed that promise out of me. He said the other day that when I entered his office I had eyes like those of a dead fish and so little pulse he could hardly distinguish it." "He is quite correct," said Hume. "I saw you about the same time, and I thought, as I live, that you were a goner. You're all right now, though, and--upon my soul!--I hope you'll keep so. The charms of Bacchus are not your worst danger, Venus, my boy, is the lady you want to keep shy of." "Don't I know that?" I answered. "Confound her and all her nymphs!" "Well, good day," he said, taking my hand in his and putting the other on my shoulder affectionately. "Tuesday I shall look for you, remember, with a dray load of letters from the fair maidens of this metropolis!" CHAPTER III. AN EVENING AT KOSTER & BIAL'S.