Harvey is, or professes to be, a lawyer. One of our mutual friends once got credit for a _mot_ that really didn't amount to much, when a third party inquired if Harvey had yet been 'admitted to the bar,' by replying that he had been admitted to every bar in Greater New York, although he had always failed to pass. Whatever might be said of him, he was a thoroughbred. The Spanish Inquisition could not have drawn a secret out of him. The worst he would do if he disapproved of my scheme was to tell me so, and I had a wild anxiety to talk it over with some one. "Halloa, old fellow!" he cried, as I entered his door. "Devilish glad to see you. Take one of these cigars, draw up here, put your feet beside mine on the desk, and tell me how you are." Accepting the invitation in both its phases I responded that I was improving every day, and that I believed myself nearly, if not quite, out of the woods. "Of course, you are," he replied, jovially. "And now you are out, will you get back again, or take a friend's advice and stay out?" "I don't even know how I got in," I remarked, dolefully. "When I see a chap like you in the enjoyment of all the health and spirits in the world it seems unfair that I should be knocked down in the way I was. Why, all the drinking I've done since I was born wouldn't satisfy you for half a year." Harvey blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling and winked knowingly. "Rats!" he responded. "I only drink just enough to lubricate my mucous membrane. If you had drunk oftener and done some other things less, you would be in as fit shape as I am. It was plain to me for a long time that you would bring up where you did. No fellow can live on the edge of his nerves month after month without paying the piper, sooner or later." "Well," I said, "I'm through with it now, at all events. Lovely woman has got to get along without me, in the old way, for a long time to come. Dr. Chambers has given me a scare, and I'm going to profit by it." "Good!" exclaimed Harvey, with warmth. "Yes," I continued, smiling inwardly at the scheme I was about to divulge, "the sort of female creature with which I have spent my time and cash is to be banished from my waking and my sleeping dreams. I am going to take ship for some foreign port, and remain away till I am sure of my resolutions." Hume leaned over and took my hand in his own. My esteem for him rose with the action, which spoke more than words, but I went on with my story. "The doctor will not hear of my going alone, however," I pursued, "and--" "And he's quite right," he interpolated. "So I have advertised for a companion to make the trip. You don't seem to have conceived any plan for me, so I've invented one of my own." My friend interrupted again to compliment me on the common sense of the move.