A STARTLING DISCLOSURE
“Look at me closely, Stephen Ray,” said the strange visitor. “I think you will see some traces of the Bolton you used to know.”
Stephen Ray did examine his visitor closely. Against his will he was obliged to acknowledge the resemblance of the man before him to one who in past times had had an intimate acquaintance with his affairs.
“You may be Benjamin Bolton,” he said after a pause, “but if so, you have fallen off greatly in your appearance. When I first knew you, you were well dressed and——”
“Respectable, I suppose you mean to say?”
“Well, respectable, if you will have it so. Now you look more like a tramp than a lawyer.”
“True as gospel, every word of it. But it isn’t too late to mend. That’s an old proverb and a true one. It is quite in the line of possibility that I should get back to the position from which I fell.”
“Perhaps so, but I’m not very sanguine of it.”
“With your help nothing is impossible.”
“You must not count upon that,” said Stephen Ray stiffly. “It is a good while since we parted company. I don’t myself care to renew the acquaintance.”