"I will walk down with you as far as the hotel," said Bergan, coming out, and closing the gate behind him. "Perhaps I may be able to pick up a few seeds of sleep on the way, which will sprout into another nap, when I return. What a night it is!" "For lunatics--yes," said the doctor dryly. "Among which you would doubtless class your humble servant," returned Bergan, "if you could look into his mind, at this moment." "Very likely," rejoined Doctor Remy, indifferently; but he gave his companion a quick, keen glance, nevertheless. Bergan was looking straight before him. "Doctor," said he, suddenly, "I believe you know the world well; what does it do to the man who goes counter to its traditions and prejudices,--whom, in short, it is pleased to look upon as a kind of modern Don Quixote?" "Laughs at him first, hammers him next, flings him aside last," returned the doctor, sententiously. "But if he does not mind being laughed at, bears the hammering without flinching when he must, hammers back again when he may, and will not be flung aside, what then?" pursued Bergan. The doctor stopped short in his walk, and looked long and searchingly in the young man's face. "Then," said he, slowly, as if the words were drawn out of him almost against his will,--"then it gives way to him, and honors its conqueror. But," he added, "it is a long, exhausting contest. I do not advise you to try it." "Thank you," answered Bergan, quietly. "I am inclined to try it, nevertheless. But here we are at the hotel. Good night." Doctor Remy stood on the steps of the hotel, looking moodily after him. "What has he taken into his head now?" he asked himself. He had not long to wait for an answer. In the morning, the light which he had noticed in the rear of the drygoods store, found its sufficient explanation in an empty safe and rifled shelves. A week afterward, a tall, ill-favored man was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the robbery. Two days later, it was known that Bergan Arling had positively refused to undertake his defence. In due course of time, it leaked out, through the amazed prisoner himself, that he had done so because he believed it to be no part of his professional duty to try to shield a criminal from just punishment. XII. A CONSULTATION. Plainly, Mrs. Bergan had something on her mind, that bright spring morning. Though she poured her husband's second cup of coffee with a deliberation that seemed to promise much for its flavor, he was fain to send it back, after tasting it, with the explanatory remark:-- "You have forgotten to smile into it, my dear; it is not sweet enough." "Eh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bergan, absently, extending her hand toward the cream pitcher. "I doubt if cream will mend the matter much," observed Mr. Bergan, gravely. "A lump of sugar might do, if the smile be absolutely _non est_."