On the first morning after breakfast Bernard asked, as his guardian was starting for his office, “Is there anything you wish me to do?”
“No; you can go about the city and make yourself familiar with it. If I should get you a place here it might be well for you to know your way about the streets.”
“I shall like that.”
“Oh, by the way, have you any money for car fare, or any small expenses?”
“Yes, sir, I have all I shall need for the present.”
Mr. McCracken looked relieved, for he was not a liberal man, and was glad to be freed from the expense of supplying his ward with pocket money.
Shortly after breakfast he went out and bent his steps toward Broadway. He had been in New York before, but not for some years, and it was quite new to him. He wandered about as chance suggested.
About eleven o’clock he was passing a barber shop on a side street, and it occurred to him that his hair needed cutting. He entered the shop, and sat down to wait his turn. He found himself sitting next a man with hair partially gray, who regarded him with some attention.
“Have you come in to be shaved?” he asked, with a smile.
Bernard smiled in return.