so completely smothered myself, at present,” says Mr George, passing his hand hopelessly across his brow, “that I don’t know but what it might be a satisfaction to me.”

Mr Smallweed, hearing that this authority is an old soldier, so strongly inculcates the expediency of the trooper’s taking counsel with him, and particularly informing him of its being a question of five guineas or more, that Mr George engages to go and see him. Mr Tulkinghorn says nothing either way.

“I’ll consult my friend, then, by your leave, sir,” says the trooper, “and I’ll take the liberty of looking in again with the final answer in the course of the day. Mr Smallweed, if you wish to be carried down-stairs—”

“In a moment, my dear friend, in a moment. Will you first let me speak half a word with this gentleman, in private?”

“Certainly, sir. Don’t hurry yourself on my account.” The trooper retires to a distant part of the room, and resumes his curious inspection of the boxes; strong, and otherwise.

“If I wasn’t as weak as a Brimstone Baby, sir,” whispers Grandfather Smallweed, drawing the lawyer down to his level by the lapel of his coat, and flashing some half-quenched green fire out of his angry eyes, “I’d tear the writing away from him. He’s got it buttoned in his breast. I saw him put it there. Judy saw him put it there. Speak up, you crabbed image for the sign of a walking-stick shop, and say you saw him put it there!”

This vehement conjuration the old gentleman accompanies with such a thrust at his grand-daughter, that it is too much for his strength, and he slips away out of his chair, drawing Mr Tulkinghorn with him, until he is arrested by Judy, and well shaken.

“Violence will not do for me, my friend,” Mr Tulkinghorn then remarks coolly.

“No, no, I know, I know, sir. But it’s chafing and galling — it’s — it’s worse than your smattering chattering Magpie of a grandmother,” to the imperturbable Judy, who only looks at the fire, “to know he has got what’s wanted and won’t give it up. He, not to give it up! He! A vagabond! But never mind, sir, never mind. At the most, he has only his own way for a little while. I have him periodically in a vice. I’ll twist him, sir. I’ll screw him, sir. If he won’t do it with a good grace, I’ll make him do it with a bad one, sir! — Now, my dear Mr George,” says Grandfather Smallweed, winking at the lawyer hideously, as he releases him, “I am ready for your kind assistance, my excellent friend!”

Mr Tulkinghorn, with some shadowy sign of amusement manifesting itself through his self-possession, stands on the hearth-rug with his back to the fire, watching the disappearance of Mr Smallweed, and acknowledging the trooper’s parting salute with one slight nod.

It is more difficult to get rid of the old gentleman, Mr George finds, than to bear a hand in carrying him down-stairs; for, when he is replaced in his conveyance, he is so loquacious on the subject of the guineas, and retains such an affectionate hold of his button — having, in truth, a secret longing to rip his coat open, and rob him — that some degree of force is necessary on the trooper’s part to effect a separation. It is accomplished at last, and he proceeds alone in quest of his adviser.

By the cloisterly Temple, and by Whitefriars (there, not without a glance at Hanging-Sword Alley, which would seem to be something in his way), and by Blackfriars Bridge, and Blackfriars Road, Mr George sedately marches to a street of little shops lying somewhere in that ganglion of roads from Kent and Surrey, and of streets from the bridges of London, centring in the far-famed Elephant who has lost his Castle formed of a thousand four-horse coaches, to a stronger iron monster than he, ready to chop him into mince-meat any day he dares. To one of the little shops in this street, which is a musician’s shop, having a few fiddles in the window, and some Pan’s pipes and a tambourine, and a triangle, and certain elongated scraps of music, Mr George directs his massive tread. And halting at a few paces from it, as