DICK was just leaving the house when the boys arrived there that evening, and Eli Yale was awaiting him at the curb, but he instantly offered to return. Since the evening had turned cool, they went inside, seating themselves in the little room to the right that was at once parlor, living-room, library and Dick's study.
It was a comfortable, homelike little room, with a big table by the front windows whereat Dick studied and conducted his affairs, a smaller one, in the center of the warmly-hued carpet, flanked by two easy chairs,—one of which, a deeply tufted leather affair, was Dick's especial property,—a couch covered with a gaily colored Afghan robe, two book-cases, an old-fashioned foot-rest, more chairs and, curled up on one of them, a fluffy smoke-gray cat. Between the book-shelves was a
fireplace and on the marble ledge above, a brass-
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