"Then I hope he won't find out. How did it happen, Florence, you didn't watch him when he was sitting beside you?"
"How could you expect me to watch a man who was engaged in reading a volume of sermons. They were the sermons of Rev. Dr. Hooker."
"Perhaps that is where he learned _hooking_," laughed Mark.
"That's a good joke!" said Florence. "By the way, mama, have you tickets for the theater this evening?"
"Yes, but one won't be used. Louisa Frost can't go."
"Then suppose you give it to Mr. Mason. I am sure he would enjoy the play."
"Well thought of, Florence. Won't you get one of the tickets? You will find them on my bureau, that is if our young friend has no other engagement."
"I have none whatever," said Mark promptly. "You are very kind, Mrs. Loring."
"You must thank Florence. If you were a few years older I should be afraid she had designs upon you. It is leap year, you know."
"Now, mama, what will Mr. Mason think of me? I am propriety personified."
Mark concluded his call and left the house, well pleased at having successfully carried out his instructions. He went back directly to the hotel, and sitting down in the reading room wrote the following letter to his employer:
"DEAR SIR: I have delivered the diamond ring, and inclose Mrs. Loring's check for a thousand dollars in payment. She is very much pleased with it, and says it exactly suits her. I have had a pleasant journey, and expect to start on my return to-morrow.
As he was writing the address some one passed behind his chair and looked over his shoulder at the superscription.
It was the "Rev." Mr. Buffington, as he called himself.
His eye lighted up as he saw to whom the letter was addressed.
"So this boy is traveling for a New York jeweler," he said to himself. "I am glad to know this. He probably carries a stock of jewelry with him, and if so, I shall cultivate his acquaintance."
He passed out of the reading room without Mark observing him. Mr. Buffington took care to keep out of the way, and Mark supposed he had left the hotel.
Mark was confirmed in his belief that Mr. Buffington had left the hotel, because on looking over the book he found no such name. It did not occur to him that Lawrence Perkins was his railroad friend under another _alias_. Mr. Buffington was rich in names, and had masqueraded under at least a dozen. He, however, had seen Mark's name in the register, and noted carefully the number of his room. The information seemed to him important, especially after he had looked over Mark's shoulder and found that he represented a prominent jeweler in New York.
