gentleman with a goatee, whose one surreptitious eye betokened both
indolence of disposition and a certain furtive shrewdness. He collected
all the outstanding subscriptions he could, on the morning of the issue
just mentioned, and, thoughtfully neglecting several items on the other
side of the ledger, departed from Plattville forever.

The same afternoon a young man from the East alighted on the platform of
the railway station, north of the town, and, entering the rickety omnibus
that lingered there, seeking whom it might rattle to deafness, demanded to
be driven to the Herald Building. It did not strike the driver that the
newcomer was precisely a gay young man when he climbed into the omnibus;
but, an hour later, as he stood in the doorway of the edifice he had
indicated as his destination, depression seemed to have settled into the
marrow of his bones. Plattville was instantly alert to the stranger's
presence, and interesting conjectures were hazarded all day long at the
back door of Martin's Dry-Goods Emporium, where all the clerks from the
stores around the Square came to play checkers or look on at the game.
(This was the club during the day; in the evening the club and the game
removed to the drug, book, and wall-paper store on the corner.) At supper,
the new arrival and his probable purposes were discussed over every table
in the town. Upon inquiry, he had informed Judd Bennett, the driver of the
omnibus, that he had come to stay. Naturally, such a declaration caused a
sensation, as people did not come to Plattville to live, except through
the inadvertency of being born there. In addition, the young man's
appearance and attire were reported to be extraordinary. Many of the
curious, among them most of the marriageable females of the place, took
occasion to pass and repass the sign of the "Carlow County Herald" during
the evening.

Meanwhile, the stranger was seated in the dingy office upstairs with his