“No regrets nor sympathy are required, thank you, sir,” replied Carroll.
“If I could be of any assistance,” persisted the man, who was short in his weekly column and not easily daunted.
“No assistance is required, thank you, sir,” replied Carroll.
The man retreated, and rejoined his companion at the table.
“Get anything out of him?” asked the other.
“No, but I can make something out of him, I guess.”
“Poor devil!” said the other man.
“It might have paid to shadow him,” said the first man, thoughtfully. “I shouldn't wonder if he took a bee-line for a drug-store. He looked desperate.”
“Or perhaps the park. He looks like the sort that might have a pistol around somewhere.”
This man actually, after a second's reflection, left his luncheon and hastened after Carroll, but he did not find him. Carroll had recovered himself and had taken the Elevated up-town to answer another advertisement. That was one for a book-keeper, and there was also unsuccessful. Coming out, he stood on the corner, looking at his list. He had written down nearly every want in the advertising columns. Actually he had even thought of trying for a position as coachman. He certainly could drive and could care for horses, and he considered quite impartially that he might make a good appearance in a livery on a fashionable turn-out. He had left now on his list only two which he had not tried; one was for a superintendent to care for a certain public building, a small museum. He had really a somewhat better chance there, apparently, for he had at one time known one of the trustees quite well. For that very reason he had put it off until the last, for he dreaded meeting an old acquaintance, and, too, there was a chance, though not a very good one, that the acquaintance might work harm instead of advantage. Still, the trustee had been in Europe for several years past, and the chances were that he would know nothing derogatory to Carroll which would interfere with his obtaining the position.