The boy looked about him hesitatingly. "I shouldn't like to tell you here," he answered. "There are too many people round." "I shall be at leisure after six o'clock. Will that do?" "Yes. Could you come up to my room?" "I will come with pleasure." "I want a confidant. I want advice. You are younger than I am--at least you look so--but you have lived in the city while I am from the country." "At any rate I will give you the best advice I can." "Thank you. I feel better for having found a friend. I will go and take a walk, and you will find me here at six o'clock." When Rupert got through work he found the boy waiting for him in the same place. "I can go upstairs with you now." "All right!" said the young guest, rising from his seat quickly. "We will take the elevator, for my room is on the top floor." "In business hours," said Rupert, "I am not allowed to use the elevator. Now I am no longer a bell-boy, but your visitor." The room was a small hall bedroom. It was one that was let for seventy-five cents a day, while the better and larger rooms ranged upwards to a dollar and a half. The room contained one chair only. "Please take a seat," said the young host. "But where will you sit?" "I will sit on the bed. I don't know but you will laugh at me," he went on, "when I tell you what brought me to New York." "Oh, no. I shall not laugh at you. But first, as we are to be friends, let me tell you my name and ask yours. I am Rupert Rollins." "That is a nice name. It sounds like a story name. Mine is Leslie Waters." "Where do you live?"' "I was born and brought up in Rahway. That is in New Jersey, about twenty miles from New York. My father lives about a mile from the village. He has a small farm." "And you were brought up to work on the farm?" "Well, it isn't exactly a farm, but we raise vegetables and fruits for the New York market. I went to school till a year ago. Then I graduated, and since then I have worked for my father." "Did you like it?" "No, I don't like working on land. I feel," continued Leslie, flushing, "that I was born for something better and nobler. Besides, I don't want to live in the country. I prefer the city. There's something going on here." "Yes, that is true." "And I wanted to be in the excitement. I'd rather live half as long in the city. You can live more here in a year than in the country in two years." "Was there any particular thing that you wished to do?" "Yes, I am coming to that. When I attended school there was one exercise that many of the boys did not like, but I did. I liked to declaim. I began with such pieces as 'Casabianca'--you know that, don't you?" "Oh, yes," said Rupert, smiling. "I have spoken it more than once myself." "But of course I got beyond that after a while. I used to speak pieces from Shakespeare and other dramatic authors. There was one I liked to speak in particular. It begins: