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BOUT a dozen persons occupied the parlor-car. Neither Philip nor Gerald paid any attention to them; they were absorbed, first, in settling themselves, and, next, in the discovery that the station, Youngwood Manor, at which Mr. Marcy's friend Hilliard should board their train, was not to be reached till after one o'clock. They consulted the letter from him (Philip happened to have brought it in his pocket), written in a neat, precise, hand—rather an elderly sort of hand—and felt disposed to like the sender of it, in advance.

But while they talked rather loudly and eagerly, and certainly with mentioning plenty of names and places, something of much importance to them suddenly got into progress near them. Let us say it was something fate had willed that they should not observe. They did not observe it. O, these big and little decrees in the destinies of boys and men!