years, which we now look back upon with pleasure and regret. I fear
that we, no more than Ingersoll Armour, were quite whole-hearted
Bohemians; but I don't know that we really ever pretended to be.




3. The Hesitation of Miss Anderson.


Chapter 3.I.

When it became known that Madeline Anderson had finally decided to
go abroad for two years, her little circle in New York naturally
talked a good deal, in review, about her curious reason for never
having gone before. So much that happened afterward, so much that I
am going to tell, depends upon this reason for not going before,
that I also must talk about it and explain it; I could never bring
it out just as we went along. It would have been a curious reason
in connection with anybody, but doubly so as explaining the
behaviour of Miss Anderson, whose profile gave you the impression
that she was anything but the shuttlecock of her emotions. Shortly,
her reason was a convict, Number 1596, who, up to February in that
year, had been working, or rather waiting, out his sentence in the
State penitentiary. So long as he worked or waited, Madeline
remained in New York, but when in February death gave him his
quittance, she took her freedom too, with wide intentions and many
coupons.

Earlier in his career Number 1596 had been known in New York society