This is a novel book. The firm name, painted in gilt letters upon the glass of the door, was Dudley Bliss. Mortimer Dudley was the senior member, though not over thirty years old. Robert Bliss was two years 1 younger. Mr. Dudley was sorting some papers and deftly tying them into bundles with red tape. Why lawyers will persist in using tape of a sanguine color is an unsolvable mystery to me, unless it may be that they are loath to dis turb the many old adages in which the significant couplet of words appears. However that may be, Mr. Dudley paused in his occupation, attracted by an exclamation from his partner, who had been reading a morning paper.