emanation of temperance sentiments--then said
aloud: "And yet you engage in a business you
dislike! Traffic in an article that you yourself
condemn! Do I understand you?"

"Might there not be such a thing," he said
quietly, "as inheriting a business--the same as
inheriting an appetite? However, one advances by
gradations: I shall SELL no more. This is my last
trip on the road in that capacity: I am coming in
now to take charge of the firm's books. Would be
glad to have you call on me any time you're in the
city. Good-by." And, as he swung off the slowly
moving train, now entering the city, and I stood
watching him from the open door of the caboose
as he rapidly walked down a suburban street, I
was positive his gait was anything but steady--that
the step--the figure--the whole air of the man was
that of one then laboring under the effects of
partial intoxication.

I have always liked peculiar people; no matter
where I met them, no matter who they were; if
once impressed with an eccentricity of character
which I have reason to believe purely unaffected, I
never quite forget the person, name or place of
our first meeting, or where the interesting party
may be found again. And so it was in the customary
order of things that, during hasty visits to the
city, I often called on the eccentric Mr. Clark, and,