Having progressed in his simple toilet up to the point of embellishment, he proceeded to tear away the soiled surface, and in doing so discovered not only the clean bosom beneath, but that the rear of the one just detached was covered with a block of minute print. Drawing the solitary chair close to the window, he read by the light of early dawn the following extraordinary compilation. CHAPTER II In the city of ---- there lived one Rodman Raikes, unpopularly known as the "Fist." The title, however, was not in recognition of personal prowess, for no more cringing, evasive creature ever existed. He was little in mind, little in body, and little in his dealings. If a principle could ever be concrete, Raikes was the embodiment of the grasping and the uselessly abstemious. He appeared to shun a generous sentiment as one would avoid an infected locality, and usually walked with head tilted and body bent as if engaged in following a clue or intent upon the search of some stray nickel. He was thoroughly despised by all who knew him, a sentiment which he returned with vicious interest, and never neglected an opportunity of lodging some sneering shaft where it would cause the most irritation. His character was so much in harmony with these generalizations that he had been described as dividing his laughter into chuckles--if the strident rasp which he indulged could be called by that name--in order that it might last the longer; and that he grinned in grudging instalments. His obvious possession was an entire row of brick houses, in the most insignificant of which he dwelt. Over this sparse domicile a spinster sister presided, who reflected, on compulsion, in the manner of a sickly moon, the attenuity and shrivel of her brother. A nephew of Raikes' completed the circuit. This young man intruded upon this strange household an aspect so curiously at variance with that of his rickety elders that he suggested to the fanciful the grim idea of having exhausted the contents of the larder and compelled the other two to shift for themselves. He was, in the eyes of the disapproving Raikes, offensively plump; an example of incredible expenditure applied to personal gratification and gluttonous indulgence. The miser behaved as if he appeared to consider it a mark of studied disrespect to be compelled to contrast his gaunt leanness with the young man's embonpoint, and was propitiated only by the reflection that he contributed in no way to his nephew's physical disproportion, since the latter was able to be at charges for his own welfare from resources derived from steady outside employment. Adjoining the house occupied by Raikes, and connected with it by a doorway let into the wall, was a series of three dwellings used as a boarding-establishment by a widow who had seen better days and was tireless in alluding to them. These buildings had been remodeled to communicate with each other, a continuity that concluded with the Raikes apartments.