Mrs. Lammle, that if Lammle got time he cumstances, accept a suggested expression, "but wouldn't burst up?-To use an expression," Mr. Fledgeby apologetically explained, "which is adopted in the Money Market." "Indeed yes. Truly, truly, yes!" "That makes all the difference," said Fledgeby. "I'll make a point of seeing Riah at once." "Blessings on you, dearest Mr. Fledgeby!" "Not at all," said Fledgeby. She gave him her hand. "The hand," said Mr. Fledgeby, "of a lovely and superior-minded female is ever the repayment of a-" "Noble action!" said Mrs. Lammle, extremely anxious to get rid of him. "It wasn't what I was going to say," returned Fledgeby, who never would, under any cir you're very complimentary. May I imprint a— a one-upon it. Good-morning!" "I may depend upon your promptitude, dearest Mr. Fledgeby?" Said Fledgeby, looking back at the door and respectfully kissing his hand, "You may depend upon it." In fact, Mr. Fledgeby sped on his errand of mercy through the streets at so brisk a rate that his feet might have been winged by all the good spirits that wait on Generosity. They might have taken up their station in his breast, too, for he was blithe and merry. There was quite a fresh trill in his voice, when, arriving at the counting-house in St. Mary Axe, and finding it for the moment empty, he trolled forth at the foot of the staircase: "Now, Judah, what are | Mr. Fledgeby before Mr. Fledgeby had espied you up to there?" The old man appeared, with his accustomed deference. 66 "Holloa!" said Fledgeby, falling back, with a wink. "You mean mischief, Jerusalem!" The old man raised his eyes inquiringly. "Yes, you do," said Fledgeby. Oh, you sinner! Oh, you dodger! What! You're going to act upon that bill of sale at Lammle's, are you? Nothing will turn you, won't it? You won't be put off for another single minute, won't you?" Ordered to immediate action by the master's tone and look, the old man took up his hat from the little counter where it lay. "You have been told that he might pull through it, if you didn't go in to win, WideAwake; have you?" said Fledgeby. "And it's not your game that he should pull through it; ain't it? You having got security, and there being enough to pay you? Oh, you Jew!" The old man stood irresolute and uncertain for a moment, as if there might be further instructions for him in reserve. "Do I go, Sir?" he at length asked in a low voice. her, and he was paralyzed in his purpose of shutting her out, not so much by her approaching the door, as by her favoring him with a shower of nods, the instant he saw her. This advantage she improved by hobbling up the steps with such dispatch that before Mr. Fledgeby could take measures for her finding nobody at home, she was face to face with him in the counting-house. "Hope I see you well, Sir," said Miss Wren. "Mr. Riah in ?" Fledgeby had dropped into a chair, in the attitude of one waiting wearily. "I suppose he will be back soon," he replied; "he has cut out and left me expecting him back, in an odd way. Haven't I seen you before?" "Once before-if you had your eyesight," replied Miss Wren; the conditional clause in an under-tone. "When you were carrying on some games up at the top of the house. I remember. How's your friend?" "I have more friends than one, Sir, I hope," replied Miss Wren. "Which friend ?" "Never mind," said Mr. Fledgeby, shutting up one eye, 'any of your friends, all your friends. Are they pretty tolerable?" "Asks me if he is going!" exclaimed Fledgeby. "Asks me, as if he didn't know his own Somewhat confounded, Miss Wren parried the purpose! Asks me, as if he hadn't got his hat pleasantry, and sat down in a corner behind the on ready! Asks me, as if his sharp old eye-door, with her basket in her lap. By-and-by, why, it cuts like a knife-wasn't looking at his she said, breaking a long and patient silence: walking-stick by the door!" "Do I go, Sir?" "I beg your pardon, Sir, but I am used to find Mr. Riah at this time, and so I generally "Do you go?" sneered Fledgeby. "Yes, come at this time. I only want to buy my poor you do go. Toddle, Judah!" CHAPTER XIII. little two shillings' worth of waste. Perhaps you'll kindly let me have it, and I'll trot off to my work." "I let you have it?" said Fledgeby, turning his head toward her; for he had been sitting blinking at the light, and feeling his cheek. "Why, you don't really suppose that I have any thing to do with the place, or the business; do you?" "He "Suppose?" exclaimed Miss Wren. said, that day, you were the master!" "The old cock in black said? Riah said? Why, he'd say any thing." GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME, AND HANG HIM. FASCINATION FLEDGEBY, left alone in the counting-house, strolled about with his hat on one side, whistling, and investigating the drawers, and prying here and there for any small evidences of his being cheated, but could find none. "Not his merit that he don't cheat me," was Mr. Fledgeby's commentary delivered with "Well; but you said so too," returned Miss a wink, "but my precaution." He then with a Wren. "Or at least you took on like the maslazy grandeur asserted his rights as lord of Pub-ter, and didn't contradict him." sey and Co. by poking his cane at the stools and "One of his dodges," said Mr. Fledgeby, with boxes, and spitting in the fire-place, and so loi-a cool and contemptuous shrug. "He's made tered royally to the window and looked out into of dodges. He said to me, 'Come up to the the narrow street, with his small eyes just peer-top of the house, Sir, and I'll show you a handing over the top of Pubsey and Co.'s blind. As some girl. But I shall call you the master.' a blind in more senses than one, it reminded So I went up to the top of the house and he him that he was alone in the counting-house with the front-door open. He was moving away to shut it, lest he should be injudiciously identified with the establishment, when he was stopped by some one coming to the door. This some one was the dolls' dress-maker, with a little basket on her arm, and her crutch stick in her hand. Her keen eyes had espied showed me the handsome girl (very well worth looking at she was), and I was called the master. I don't know why. I dare say he don't. He loves a dodge for its own sake; being," added Mr. Fledgeby, after casting about for an expressive phrase, "the dodgerest of all the dodgers." "Oh my head!” cried the dolls' dress-maker, holding it with both her hands, as if it were cracking. "You can't mean what you say." "I can, my little woman," retorted Fledgeby, "and I do, I assure you." This repudiation was not only an act of deliberate policy on Fledgeby's part, in case of his being surprised by any other caller, but was also a retort upon Miss Wren for her over-sharpness, and a pleasant instance of his humor as regarded the old Jew. "He has got a bad name as an old Jew, and he is paid for the use of it, and I'll have my money's worth out of him." This was Fledgeby's habitual reflection in the way of business, and it was sharpened just now by the old man's presuming to have a secret from him: though of the secret itself, as annoying somebody else whom he disliked, he by no means disapproved. Miss Wren with a fallen countenance sat behind the door looking thoughtfully at the ground, and the long and patient silence had again set in for some time, when the expression of Mr. Fledgeby's face betokened that through the upper portion of the door, which was of glass, he saw some one faltering on the brink of the counting-house. Presently there was a rustle and a tap, and then some more rustling and another tap. Fledgeby taking no notice, the door was at length softly opened, and the dried face of a mild little elderly gentleman looked in. "Mr. Riah?" said this visitor, very politely. "I am waiting for him, Sir," returned Mr. Fledgeby. "He went out and left me here. I expect him back every minute. Perhaps you had better take a chair." The gentleman took a chair, and put his hand to his forehead, as if he were in a melancholy frame of mind. Mr. Fledgeby eyed him aside, and seemed to relish his attitude. "A fine day, Sir," remarked Fledgeby. The little dried gentleman was so occupied with his own depressed reflections that he did not notice the remark until the sound of Mr. Fledgeby's voice had died out of the countinghouse. Then he started, and said: "I beg your pardon, Sir. I fear you spoke to me?" "I said," remarked Fledgeby, a little louder than before, "it was a fine day." nence in the last words; on the other hand, it might have been but the native grace of Mr. Fledgeby's manner. Mr. Fledgeby sat on a stool with a foot on the rail of another stool, and his hat on. Mr. Twemlow had uncovered on looking in at the door, and remained so. Now the conscientious Twemlow, knowing what he had done to thwart the gracious Fledgeby, was particularly disconcerted by this encounter. He was as ill at ease as a gentleman well could be. He felt himself bound to conduct himself stiffly toward Fledgeby, and he made him a distant bow. Fledgeby made his small eyes smaller in taking special note of his manner. The dolls' dress-maker sat in her corner behind the door, with her eyes on the ground and her hands folded on her basket, holding her crutch-stick between them, and appearing to take no heed of any thing. "He's a long time," muttered Mr. Fledgeby, looking at his watch. "What time may you make it, Mr. Twemlow?" Mr. Twemlow made it ten minutes past twelve, Sir. "As near as a toucher," assented Fledgeby. "I hope, Mr. Twemlow, your business here may be of a more agreeable character than mine." "Thank you, Sir," said Mr. Twemlow. Fledgeby again made his small eyes smaller, as he glanced with great complacency at Twemlow, who was timorously tapping the table with a folded letter. "What I know of Mr. Riah," said Fledgeby, with a very disparaging utterance of his name, "leads me to believe that this is about the shop for disagreeable business. I have always found him the bitingest and tightest screw in London." Mr. Twemlow acknowledged the remark with a little distant bow. It evidently made him nervous. "So much so," pursued Fledgeby, "that if it wasn't to be true to a friend, nobody should catch me waiting here a single minute. But if you have friends in adversity, stand by them. That's what I say and act up to." The equitable Twemlow felt that this sentiment, irrespective of the utterer, demanded his cordial assent. "You are very right, Sir," he "I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. rejoined with spirit. "You indicate the generYes." Again the little dried gentleman put his hand to his forehead, and again Mr. Fledgeby seemed to enjoy his doing it. When the gentleman changed his attitude with a sigh, Fledgeby spake with a grin. "Mr. Twemlow, I think?" The dried gentleman seemed much surprised. "Had the pleasure of dining with you at Lammle's," said Fledgeby. "Even have the honor of being a connection of yours. An unexpected sort of place this to meet in; but one never knows, when one gets into the City, what people one may knock up against. I hope you have your health, and are enjoying yourself." There might have been a touch of imperti ous and manly course." "Glad to have your approbation," returned Fledgeby. "It's a coincidence, Mr. Twemlow;" here he descended from his perch, and sauntered toward him; "that the friends I am standing by to-day are the friends at whose house I met you! The Lammles. She's a very taking and agreeable woman?" Conscience smote the gentle Twemlow pale. "Yes," he said. "She is." "And when she appealed to me this morning, to come and try what I could do to pacify their creditor, this Mr. Riah-that I certainly have gained some little influence with in transacting business for another friend, but nothing like so much as she supposes-and when a wo man like that spoke to me as her dearest Mr. | Mr. Riah's not society. In society, Mr. Riah is Fledgeby, and shed tears-why what could I kept dark; eh, Mr. Twemlow?" do, you know?" 66 Twemlow gasped "Nothing but come." "Nothing but come. And so I came. But why," said Fledgeby, putting his hands in his pockets and counterfeiting deep meditation, why Riah should have started up, when I told him that the Lammles entreated him to hold over a Bill of Sale he has on all their effects; and why he should have cut out, saying he would be back directly; and why he should have left me here alone so long; I can not understand." The chivalrous Twemlow, Knight of the Simple Heart, was not in a condition to offer any suggestion. He was too penitent, too remorseful. For the first time in his life he had done an underhanded action, and he had done wrong. He had secretly interposed against this confiding young man, for no better real reason than because the young man's ways were not his ways. But, the confiding young man proceeded to heap coals of fire on his sensitive head. Twemlow, much disturbed, and with his hand fluttering about his forehead, replied: "Quite true." The confiding young man besought him to state his case. The innocent Twemlow, expecting Fledgeby to be astounded by what he should unfold, and not for an instant conceiving the possibility of its happening every day, but treating of it as a terrible phenomenon occurring in the course of ages, related how that he had had a deceased friend, a married civil officer with a family, who had wanted money for change of place on change of post, and how he, Twemlow, had "given him his name," with the usual, but in the eyes of Twemlow almost incredible result that he had been left to repay what he had never had. How, in the course of years, he had reduced the principal by trifling sums, "having,' said Twemlow, "always to observe great economy, being in the enjoyment of a fixed income limited in extent, and that depending on the munificence of a certain nobleman," and had always pinched the full interest out of himself with punctual pinches. How he had come, in course of time, to look upon this one only debt of his life as a regular quarterly drawback, and no worse, when "his name" had some way fallen into the possession of Mr. Riah, who had sent him notice to redeem it by paying up in full, in one plump sum, or take tremendous consequences. This, with hazy remembrances of how he had been "I am even a poorer man of business than I carried to some office to "confess judgment" (as am a man, Sir," returned Twemlow, "and I he recollected the phrase), and how he had been could hardly express my deficiency in a stronger carried to another office where his life was asway. I really do not so much as clearly under-sured for somebody not wholly unconnected with stand my position in the matter on which I am the sherry trade whom he remembered by the brought here. But there are reasons which make remarkable circumstance that he had a Straduame very delicate of accepting your assistance. rius violin to dispose of, and also a Madonna, am greatly, greatly, disinclined to profit by it. formed the sum and substance of Mr. Twemlow's don't deserve it." narrative. Through which stalked the shadow of the awful Snigsworth, eyed afar off by moneylenders as Security in the Mist, and menacing Twemlow with his baronial truncheon. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Twemlow; you see I am acquainted with the nature of the affairs that are transacted here. Is there any thing I can do for you here? You have always been brought up as a gentleman, and never as a man of business;" another touch of possible impertinence in this place; "and perhaps you are but a poor man of business. What else is to be expected!" I I Good childish creature! Condemned to a passage through the world by such narrow little dimly-lighted ways, and picking up so few specks or spots on the road! "Perhaps," said Fledgeby, you may be a little proud of entering on the topic-having been brought up as a gentleman." "It's not that, Sir," returned Twemlow, "it's not that. I hope I distinguish between true pride and false pride." To all, Mr. Fledgeby listened with the modest gravity becoming a confiding young man who knew it all beforehand, and, when it was finished, seriously shook his head. "I don't like, Mr Twemlow," said Fledgeby, "I don't like Riah's calling in the principal. If he's determined to call it in, it must come." "But supposing, Sir," said Twemlow, downcast, "that it can't come?" "Then," retorted Fledgeby, "you must go, you know." "Where?" asked Twemlow, faintly. "You are very good," said Twemlow, falter- Mr Twemlow leaned his innocent head upon his ing. "But I am most unwilling-" "I don't, you know," proceeded Fledgeby, with an ill-favored glance, "entertain the vanity of supposing that my wits could be of any use to you in society, but they might be here. You cultivate society and society cultivates you, but hand, and moaned a little moan of distress and disgrace. "However," said Fledgeby, appearing to pluck up his spirits, "we'll hope it's not so bad as that comes to. If you'll allow me, I'll mention to Mr. Riah when he comes in, who you are, and I'll tell him you're my friend, and I'll say my say for you, instead of your saying it for yourself; I may be able to do it in a more business-like way. You won't consider it a liberty?" "I thank you again and again, Sir," said Twemlow. "I am strong, strongly, disinclined to avail myself of your generosity, though my helplessness yields. For I can not but feel that I-to put it in the mildest form of speech-that I have done nothing to deserve it." "He is a thorough Jew to look at, but he is a more thorough Jew to deal with. He's worst when he's quiet. If he's quiet, I shall take it as a very bad sign. Keep your eye upon him when he comes in, and, if he's quiet, don't be hopeful. Here he is!-he looks quiet." With these words, which had the effect of causing the harmless Twemlow painful agitation, Mr. Fledgeby withdrew to his former post, and the old man entered the counting-house. "Why, Mr. Riah," said Fledgeby, "I thought you were lost!" The old man, glancing at the stranger, stood stock-still. He perceived that his master was leading up to the orders he was to take, and he waited to understand them. "I really thought," repeated Fledgeby slowly, "that you were lost, Mr. Riah. Why, now I look at you but no, you can't have done it; no, you can't have done it!" Hat in hand, the old man lifted his head, and looked distressfully at Fledgeby, as seeking to know what new moral burden he was to bear. "You can't have rushed out to get the start of every body else, and put in that bill of sale at Lammle's?" said Fledgeby. "Say you haven't, Mr. Riah." “Sir, I have,” replied the old man in a low voice. "And don't," said Fledgeby, "don't, I entreat you as a favor, Mr. Riah, be so devilish meek, for I know what'll follow if you are. Look here, Mr. Riah. This gentleman is Mr. Twemlow." The Jew turned to him and bowed. That poor lamb bowed in return; polite, and terrified. "I have made such a failure," proceeded Fledgeby, "in trying to do any thing with you for my friend Lammle, that I've hardly a hope of doing any thing with you for my friend (and connection indeed) Mr. Twemlow. But I do think that if you would do a favor for any body, you would for me, and I won't fail for want of trying, and I've passed my promise to Mr. Twemlow besides. Now, Mr. Riah, here is Mr. Twemlow. Always good for his interest, always coming up to time, always paying his little way. Now, why should you press Mr. Twemlow? You can't have any spite against Mr. Twemlow! Why not be easy with Mr. Twemlow?" The old man looked into Fledgeby's little eyes for any sign of leave to be easy with Mr. Twemlow; but there was no sign in them. "Mr. Twemlow is no connection of yours, Mr. Riah," said Fledgeby; "you can't want to be even with him for having through life gone in for a gentleman and hung on to his Family. If Mr. Twemlow has a contempt for business, what can it matter to you ?" "But pardon me," interposed the gentle victim, "I have not, I should consider it presumption." "There, Mr. Riah!" said Fledgeby, "isn't that handsomely said? Come! Make terms with me for Mr. Twemlow." The old man looked again for any sign of permission to spare the poor little gentleman. No. Mr. Fledgeby meant him to be racked. "I am very sorry, Mr. Twemlow," said Riah. "I have my instructions. I am invested with no authority for diverging from them. The money must be paid." "In full and slap down, do you mean, Mr. Riah?" asked Fledgeby, to make things quite explicit. 66 "Sir," said the old man, with great uneasi-swer. ness, "I do as I am directed. I am not the principal here. I am but the agent of a superior, and I have no choice, no power." "Don't say so," retorted Fledgeby, secretly exultant as the old man stretched out his hands, with a shrinking action of defending himself against the sharp construction of the two observers. "Don't play the tune of the trade, Mr. Riah. You've a right to get in your debts, if you're determined to do it, but don't pretend what every one in your line regularly pretends. At least, don't do it to me. Why should you, Mr. Riah? You know I know all about you." The old man clasped the skirt of his long coat with his disengaged hand, and directed a wistful look at Fledgeby. In full, Sir, and at once," was Riah's an Mr. Fledgeby shook his head deploringly at Twemlow, and mutely expressed in reference to the venerable figure standing before him with eyes upon the ground: "What a Monster of an Israelite this is!" "Mr. Riah," said Fledgeby. The old man lifted up his eyes once more to the little eyes in Mr. Fledgeby's head, with some reviving hope that the sign might be coming yet. "Mr. Riah, it's of no use my holding back the fact. There's a certain great party in the back-ground in Mr. Twemlow's case, and you know it." "I know it," the old man admitted. "Now, I'll put it as a plain point of business. |