"No; I’ll take the cash." "I thought perhaps Mrs. Gibbs would be wanting some things in the summer line," said Bills. Gibbs shook his head. "We pay cash," said he. Bills smiled, got up, walked briskly with a little spring to each step and left the room. He returned presently, closed the door, sat down, counted the bills out on the leaf of his desk, laid a silver half-dollar on top and said: "There you are." Gibbs counted the money carefully, rolled it up deliberately and stuffed it into his trousers pocket. Gibbs had one more errand that morning, and he drove in his hansom-cab to the private bank Amos Hunter conducted as a department of his trust company. Gibbs deposited his money, and then went into Hunter’s private office. Hunter was an old man, thin and spare, with white hair, and a gray face. He sat with his chair turned away from his desk, which he seldom used except when it became necessary for him to sign his name, and then he did this according to the direction of a clerk, who would lay a paper before him, dip a pen in ink, hand it to Hunter, and point to the space for the signature. Hunter was as economical of his energy in signing his name as in everything else; he wrote it "A. Hunter." He sat there every day without moving, as it seemed, apparently determined to eke out his life to the utmost. His coachman drove him down town at ten each morning, at four in the afternoon he came and drove him home again. It was only through the windows of the carriage and through the windows of his private office that Hunter looked out on a world with which for forty years he had never come in personal contact. His inert manner gave the impression of great age and senility; but the eyes under the thick white brows were alert, keen, virile. He was referred to generally as "old Amos." Gibbs went in, a parcel in his hand. "Just a little matter of some mutilated currency," he said. Old Amos’s thin lips seemed to smile. "You may leave it and we’ll be glad to forward it to Washington for you, Mr. Gibbs," he said, without moving. Gibbs laid the bundle on old Amos’s desk, and, taking up a bit of paper, wrote on it and handed it to Hunter. "Have you a memorandum there?" asked Hunter. He glanced at the paper and wrote on the slip: "A. H." Then he resumed the attitude that had scarcely been altered, laid his white hands in his lap and sat there with his thin habitual smile. Gibbs thanked him and went away. His morning’s work among the business men of the city was done. IV