The Late Mrs. Null | Page 5

people, but he was prudent and
careful about exhibiting his motives and intended course of action to
his associates. Himself, however, he took into his strictest confidence.
He was fond of the idea that he went into the battle of life covered and
protected by a great shield, but that the inside of the shield was a mirror
in which he could always see himself. Looking into this mirror, he now

saw that, if he did not soon get away from Miss Roberta, he would lay
down his shield and surrender, and it was his intent that this should not
happen until he wished it to happen.
It was very natural when Lawrence reached New York, that he should
take pleasure in talking about Miss Roberta March and her family with
any one who knew them. He was particularly anxious, if he could do so
delicately and without exciting any suspicion of his object, to know as
much as possible about Sylvester March, the lady's father. In doing this,
he did not feel that he was prying into the affairs of others, but he could
not be true to himself unless he looked well in advance before he made
the step on which his mind was set. It was in this way that he happened
to learn that about two years before, Miss March had been engaged to
be married, but that the engagement had been broken off for reasons
not known to his informants, and he could find out nothing about the
gentleman, except that his name was Junius Keswick.
The fact that the lady had had a lover, put her in a new light before
Lawrence Croft. He had had an idea, suggested by the very friendly
nature of their intercourse, that she was a woman whose mind did not
run out to love or marriage, but now that he knew that she was
susceptible of being wooed and won, because these things had actually
happened to her, he was very glad that he had come away from
Midbranch.
The impression soon became very strong upon the mind of Lawrence
that he would like to know what kind of man was this former lover. He
had known Miss March about a year, and at the time of his first
acquaintaince with her, she must have come very fresh from this
engagement. To study the man to whom Roberta March had been
willing to engage herself, was, to Lawrence's mode of thinking, if not a
prerequisite procedure in his contemplated course of action, at least a
very desirable one.
But he was rather surprised to find that no one knew much about Mr
Junius Keswick, or could give him any account of his present
whereabouts, although he had been, at the time when his engagement
was in force, a resident of New York. To consult a directory was,

therefore, an obvious first step in the affair; and, with this intent, Mr
Croft entered, one morning, an apothecary's shop in a street which,
though a busy one, was in a rather out-of-the-way part of the city.
"We haven't any directory, sir," said the clerk, "but if you will step
across the street you can find one at that little shop with the green door.
Everybody goes there to look at the directory."
The green door on the opposite side of the street, approached by a
single flat step of stone, had a tin sign upon it, on which was painted:
"INFORMATION OF EVERY VARIETY FURNISHED WITHIN."
Pushing open the door, Lawrence entered a long, narrow room, not
very well lighted, with a short counter on one side, and some desks,
partially screened by a curtain, at the farther end. A boy was behind the
counter, and to him Lawrence addressed himself, asking permission to
look at a city directory.
"One cent, if you look yourself; three cents, if we look," said the boy,
producing a thick volume from beneath the counter.
"One cent?" said Lawrence, smiling at the oddity of this charge, as he
opened the book and turned to the letter K.
"Yes," said the boy, "and if the fine print hurts your eyes, we'll look for
three cents."
At this moment a man came from one of the desks at the other end of
the room, and handed the boy a letter with which that young person
immediately departed. The new-comer, a smooth-shaven man of about
thirty, with the air of the proprietor or head manager very strong upon
him, took the boy's position behind the counter, and remarked to
Lawrence: "Most people, when they first come here, think it rather
queer to pay for looking at the directory, but you see we don't keep a
directory to coax people to come in to buy medicines or anything else.
We