On reaching his hotel, Larkington walked slowly up the long stairs which led to the third floor, upon which his room was situated.
He seemed deeply absorbed in thought, and stood before the window, looking with unseeing eyes into the blue sky. Yet the tenor of his thoughts was of a nature more terrestrial than celestial, as the anxious expression of the eyes and lips betokened.
"Shall I, or shall I not, go in for the heiress?" was the question he asked himself, as he paced slowly up and down the narrow coffin-like apartment, with its iron bedstead, chair, table, and wash-stand, for the use of which he would be obliged to pay five dollars a day, when he should settle his bill. When he should settle his bill! The thought reminded him of his unread letter, and seating himself at the table he soon became absorbed in the perusal of the finely crossed epistle.
After reading it through, he sat silent
