of ancient and modern literatures, a free-thinker in religion, a
lover of art in all its forms, a hater of conventionalism. Would
like to correspond in the first instance. Address O. W., City News
Rooms, W.C."

An advertisement which, naturally, might mean much or little, might
be the outcome of an idle whim, or the despairing cry of a hungry
heart. It could not be expected to elicit many replies; and brought
indeed but one.

Behind the counter of a chemist's shop in Oxford Street there
served, day after day, a young assistant much observed of female
customers. The young man was handsome, and not with that vulgar
handsomeness which is fairly common among the better kind of
shop-walkers and counter-keepers. He had rather long black hair,
which arranged itself in silky ripples about a face of perfectly
clear, though rather dark, complexion. When he smiled, as he
frequently did, the effect was very pleasant. He spoke, too, with
that musical intonation which is always more or less suggestive of
musical thought. He did not seem by any means ideally adapted to the
place he occupied here, yet filled it without suspicion of
constraint or uneasiness: there was nothing in him to make one
suppose that he had ever been accustomed to a better sphere of life.

He lived in the house above the shop, and had done so for about two
years; previously he had held a like position in a more modest
establishment. His bed-room, which had to serve him as sitting-room
also during his free hours, gave indications of a taste not
ordinarily found in chemists' assistants. On the walls were several
engravings of views in Rome, ancient and modern; and there were two