making casual acquaintance, and she had not yet become accustomed to it.

"I bought some darling little casseroles at Phelan's to-day," she said.
"The whole Phelan family waited on me. Where do you suppose the women get
their perfectly awful clothes? Mrs. Phelan offered to take me to her
milliner!" or "You know Wilkins--the furniture man where we got the big
armchair? I was in there to-day, and he apologized because his wife hadn't
called!"

They went to bed early, because they were both very tired.

Keith also had generally passed an interesting day. Immediately after
breakfast he went to his office, and conscientiously sat a while. Sometimes
he wrote letters or cast up accounts; but there could not be much of this
to do. About ten or eleven o'clock his impatient temperament had had enough
of this, so he drifted over to the Monumental engine house. After
considerable thought he had decided to join this company. It represented
about the class of men with whom he wanted to affiliate himself--the
influential men of the lawyer, Southern-politician, large business men
type. There were many of these volunteer organizations. Their main purpose
was to fight fire; but they subserved other objects as well--political,
social, and financial. David Broderick, for example, already hated and
feared, partly owned and financed a company of ward-heelers who were
introducing and establishing the Tammany type of spoils politics. Casey,
later in serious trouble, practically manipulated another.

Among the Monumentals, Keith delighted especially in Bert Taylor. Bert
Taylor likewise delighted in Keith. The little chubby man's enthusiasm for
the company, while recognized as most valuable to the company's welfare,
had ended by boring most of the company's members. But Keith was a new