property - a box of property - say anything more than is set down in

this memorandum?'

'Come, don't be a fool,' said Miss Sally.

Dick looked at her, and then at Brass, and then at Miss Sally again,

and still said 'No.'

Pooh, pooh! Deuce take it, Mr Richard, how dull you are!' cried Brass,

relaxing into a smile. 'Did he say anything about his property? -

there!'

That's the way to put it,' said Miss Sally, nodding to her brother.

Did he say, for instance,' added Brass, in a kind of comfortable, cozy

tone - 'I don't assert that he did say so, mind; I only ask you, to

refresh your memory - did he say, for instance, that he was a stranger

in London - that it was not his humour or within his ability to give any

references - that he felt we had a right to require them - and that, in

case anything should happen to him, at any time, he particularly

desired that whatever property he had upon the premises should be

considered mine, as some slight recompense for the trouble and

annoyance I should sustain - and were you, in short,' added Brass,

still more comfortably and cozily than before, 'were you induced to

accept him on my behalf, as a tenant, upon those conditions?'

Certainly not,' replied Dick.

Why then, Mr Richard,' said Brass, darting at him a supercilious and

reproachful look, 'it's my opinion that you've mistaken your calling,

and will never make a lawyer.'

'Not if you live a thousand years,' added Miss Sally. Whereupon the

brother and sister took each a noisy pinch of snuff from the little tin

box, and fell into a gloomy thoughtfulness.

Nothing further passed up to Mr Swiveller's dinner-time, which was at

three o'clock, and seemed about three weeks in coming. At the first

stroke of the hour, the new clerk disappeared. At the last stroke of

five, he reappeared, and the office, as if by magic, became fragrant

with the smell of gin and water and lemon-peel.

'Mr Richard,' said Brass, 'this man's not up yet. Nothing will wake

him, sir. What's to be done?'

'I should let him have his sleep out,' returned Dick.

The Old Curiosity Shop