the other, it was highly desirable, it was even strictly needful, to get

the bill discounted ere it should be stopped. To London, therefore, he

decided to proceed on the first train; and there remained but one point

to be considered, how to pay his fare.

Joseph's nails were never clean; he ate almost entirely with his knife.

I doubt if you could say he had the manners of a gentleman; but he had

better than that, a touch of genuine dignity. Was it from his stay in

Asia Minor? Was it from a strain in the Finsbury blood sometimes

alluded to by customers? At least, when he presented himself before the

station-master, his salaam was truly Oriental, palm-trees appeared to

crowd about the little office, and the simoom or the bulbul--but I leave

this image to persons better acquainted with the East. His appearance,

besides, was highly in his favour; the uniform of Sir Faraday, however

inconvenient and conspicuous, was, at least, a costume in which no

swindler could have hoped to prosper; and the exhibition of a valuable

watch and a bill for eight hundred pounds completed what deportment had

begun. A quarter of an hour later, when the train came up, Mr Finsbury

was introduced to the guard and installed in a first-class compartment,

the station-master smilingly assuming all responsibility.

As the old gentleman sat waiting the moment of departure, he was the

witness of an incident strangely connected with the fortunes of his

house. A packing-case of cyclopean bulk was borne along the platform

by some dozen of tottering porters, and ultimately, to the delight of a

considerable crowd, hoisted on board the van. It is often the cheering

The Wrong Box