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to you for informin' me in what way?" seriously asked the Deputy, as he for a moment desisted from dusting an immense mirror at the further end of the room.

"Why, you last night took charge of that 'ere drunken cove, who was so jolly well fuddled that he could neither sit, speak, walk, nor lay,—and 'tis now nine o'clock, and you have not been up to see whether he has slept his senses away-drunk off his water-bottle -or whether he requires a rusk and a cup of congou-a bottle of soda-water-or a 'hair off the dog that bit him'!"

"He was so werry mortal, he was, that he can't possibly wake till the muffin and crumpet bells tinkle agin, at four in the arternoon."

"You left him, then, to all the favourable chances of an open-shirt-collar, a cool bed, and a dark room. It wouldn't be amiss, though, if you tapped gently at his door, and axed him how he felt this chilly mornin'," continued the pasty man.

"I'll confer on the genleman the honour of my mornin' call werry soon," archly replied Dick.

"Yes! and sure as old Charley with his

peaked beard won't dismount his black steed at Charing-cross, or as sure as everybody knows that howdacious hanimal on the top o' Northumberland 'ouse, the gen'leman, now, when he is sober, will give you half-a-suverin for your attentions to him when he was anythin' but sober last night."

"I'se afeered my Lord and the Count, accordin' to their old practices, unloaded his purse too carefully last night, to leave a single golden likeness of King Geordie for me," answered Dick, as he gave a wink and an accompanying nod, intimative of his being one of the cognoscenti.

"P'raps you are right, Dick, my boy, and his purse aint the first what my Lord and the Count has cleared out. Don't you recollect some six months ago, how they accommodated that lieutenant of the ―th dragoons, when he came to sup a few times with 'em -likewise that country squire with the large frill, brimstone vest, pepper-and-salt pants, and thick shoes. Yes, and before that, how they relieved a fresh clubbite, a young feller who had just come of age, and had his wisdom teeth to cut?"

"I remember well," singingly replied Mr. Deputy, who chaunted the opening words of the last popular street ballad; then dropping into a sudden foot-pace gravity, he resumed, "only let 'em once mark out their prey-and how innocently Fitzgerald pops in, ready to hold a hand, rattle the box, or any mortal thin' then don't they pluck their game!"

"It's just my fancy, Dick, but I'se of opinion they have given the drunken gent up stairs a pretty good dressin'."

"They would if they could, and no mistake,” said Dick.

"Then, who will say they could not?"

"They belongs, you see, to the nobility, and so they saves their necks. Blow me emphatically declared Dick, as he suddenly dashed his duster, "if they had been of the mobility, they would both on 'm have swung at the Old Bailey long ago. I have heerd that 'ere Count can do anythin' he likes with the cards, that in France he got a wrinkle or two from the old chap in black with the tail-howsomever, he always wins!"

"Dick, my lad, you and I are better in

our present position than being titled swindlers."

"I likes a honest 'un-I does indeed, whether gentle or simple! Werry bad taste, werry, indeed, for such as them to turn rogues!" answered Mr. Deputy with tragiocomic face

"When you go up and present your card, and have a good look at him, you may conclude whether he has won or lost."

"I'll cut at once-It's a hact of 'umanity to go and see if he surwives," said Deputy, as he marched out of the room and ascended a pair of back stairs, specially used by the domestics.

Arriving at the chamber door of the inebriated man, Dick, in pantomimic drollery, draws to an acute angle the fore-finger of his left hand, and with the apex thus formed, knocks a measured ra-ta-tap, which sounds somewhat musically on the resonant panel. "Arter nine, sir," shouts Dick, "and, sir, will you please to take your breakfast in yuor bedroom, sir?"

"Come in and open the shutters."

The Deputy obeyed the summons, and as the sun is now struggling through the gauzy clouds, a flood of light is admitted into that little room.

"Bring me some tea and toast, as speedily as you can," says the just awaken.

"Yes 'ir-certainly, sir," answers Dick, who takes a furtive glance, then speedily retraces his steps down the domestic stairs.

The tea and toast have arrived with marvellous celerity, and Dick's reiterated expressions of politeness and unwonted agility are manifestly prompted by his inwardly nurtured hopes of the half suverin.

"Good God! that this is not a dream!" in tone of agony exclaims the bedded wight, who rears himself up into the semi-erect position for the special purpose of taking the spare repast. "I'm a ruined—! that'll do, thank'ee-you can leave the tray."

Dick softly takes his exit, and as soon as he sees pasty, thus delivers himself:

Egad! you've hit the nail on the right head. My Lord and the Count, and their chummy, that Fitzgerald, have, as you ima

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