only the old man hasn't broken the seals and read the papers!"

The old man had not, and Joe's fears were, therefore, groundless.




CHAPTER V.

AS A BROTHER.


Arnold immediately began to use the privilege accorded to him with a
large and liberal interpretation. If, he argued, a man is to be
treated as a brother, there should be the immediate concession of the
exchange of christian-names, and he should be allowed to call as often
as he pleases. Naturally he began by trying to read the secret of a
life self-contained, so dull, and yet so happy, so strange to his
experience.

"Is this, Iris?" he asked, "all your life? Is there nothing more?"

"No," she said; "I think you have seen all. In the morning I have my
correspondence; in the afternoon I do my sewing, I play a little, I
read, or I walk, sometimes by myself, and sometimes with Lala Roy; in
the evening I play again, or I read again, or I work at the
mathematics, while my grandfather and Lala Roy have their chess. We
used to go to the theater sometimes, but of late my grandfather has
not gone. At ten we go to bed. That is all my life."