which he half hoped was intended as a check to these attentions. Her
eyes were fixed upon the counter, and this gave him a brief opportunity
to study her delicate beauty. For in a few moments she was gone; whether
she had in her turn observed him he could not say. Presently he rose and
sauntered, with what he believed was a careless air, toward the paying
teller's counter and the receipt, which, being the last, was plainly
exposed on the file of that day's "taking." He was startled by a titter
of laughter from the clerks and by the teller ironically lifting the
file and placing it before him.

"That's her name, sonny, but I didn't think that you'd tumble to it
quite as quick as the others. Every new man manages to saunter round
here to get a sight of that receipt, and I've seen hoary old depositors
outside edge around inside, pretendin' they wanted to see the dep, jest
to feast their eyes on that girl's name. Take a good look at it and
paste a copy in your hat, for that's all you'll know of her, you bet.
Perhaps you think she's put her address and her 'at home' days on the
receipt. Look hard and maybe you'll see 'em."

The instinct of youthful retaliation to say he knew her address already
stirred Randolph, but he shut his lips in time, and moved away. His desk
neighbor informed him that the young lady came there once a month and
drew a hundred dollars from some deposit to her credit, but that was all
they knew. Her name was Caroline Avondale, yet there was no one of that
name in the San Francisco Directory.

But Randolph's romantic curiosity would not allow the incident to rest
there. A favorable impression he had produced on Mr. Dingwall enabled
him to learn more, and precipitated what seemed to him a singular
discovery. "You will find," said the deputy manager, "the statement