"Then I will accept your invitation with pleasure, sir. It is the more acceptable because I am out of a situation and have very little money."
"Very true, sir. My dress is deceptive, however."
"All that is irrelevant. Come, if you please."
So Oliver followed his new acquaintance to Delmonico's restaurant. They selected a small table, and a waiter approached to receive orders.
"I hope you are hungry," said the old gentleman. "Pray do justice to my invitation."
"I can easily do that, sir," he said. "I made but a light breakfast."
"So much the better. What kind of soup will you have?"
Oliver selected turtle soup, which was speedily brought.
It is unnecessary to enter into an elaborate description of the dinner. It is enough that Oliver redeemed his promise, and ate heartily; his new acquaintance regarding him with approval.
The coffee was brought, and at length the dinner was over.
"Thank you, sir," said Oliver, preparing to leave his hospitable entertainer. "You have been very kind. I will bid you good-day."
"No, no, come home with me. I want to have a talk with you."
Oliver reflected that his new acquaintance, who had been so mysteriously kind, might be disposed to furnish him with some employment, and thought it best to accept the invitation, especially as his time was of little value.
Twenty minutes' walk brought them to the door of a fine brown-stone house on a street leading out of Fifth Avenue.
The old gentleman took out a latch-key, opened the front door, and signed to Oliver to follow him upstairs. He paused before a front room on the third floor. Both entered. The room was in part an ordinary bed-chamber, but not wholly. In one corner was a rosewood case containing a number of steel instruments.
The old gentleman's face lighted up with strange triumph, and he locked the door.
Oliver thought it singular, but suspected no harm.
"Now, my young friend," said the old man, "I will tell you why I brought you here."
"I am a physician, and am in search of a hidden principle of nature, which I am satisfied can only be arrived at by vivisection."
"By what, sir?" exclaimed Oliver, whom the feverish, excited air of the old man began to startle.
"I propose to cut you up," said the old man composedly, selecting an ugly looking instrument, "and watch carefully the----"