logised to me for having broken the seal by inadvertence; for the
letter had been mingled with some more of his own, and he opened it
without looking at the superscription. Of course he had not read it, and
I was glad of that; for I should not have liked him to see my aunt's
opinion of his daughter and lady.

The next day, a gentleman at "Tom's Coffee-house," Cornhill, sent me word
at the office that he wanted particularly to speak to me: and I stopped
thither, and found my old friend Smithers, of the house of Hodge and
Smithers, just off the coach, with his carpet-bag between his legs.

"Sam my boy," said he, "you are your aunt's heir, and I have a piece of
news for you regarding her property which you ought to know. She wrote
us down a letter for a chest of that home-made wine of hers which she
calls Rosolio, and which lies in our warehouse along with her furniture."

"Well," says I, smiling, "she may part with as much Rosolio as she likes
for me. I cede all my right."

"Psha!" says Smithers, "it's not that; though her furniture puts us to a
deuced inconvenience, to be sure--it's not that: but, in the postscript
of her letter, she orders us to advertise the Slopperton and Squashtail
estates for immediate sale, as she purposes placing her capital
elsewhere."

I know that the Slopperton and Squashtail property had been the source of
a very pretty income to Messrs. Hodge and Smithers, for Aunt was always
at law with her tenants, and paid dearly for her litigious spirit; so
that Mr. Smithers's concern regarding the sale of it did not seem to me
to be quite disinterested.

"And did you come to London, Mr. Smithers, expressly to acquaint me with
this fact? It seems to me you had much better have obeyed my aunt's
instructions at once, or go to her at Fulham, and consult with her on
this subject."

"'Sdeath, Mr. Titmarsh! don't you see that if she makes a sale of her
property, she will hand over the money to Brough; and if Brough gets the
money he--"

"Will give her seven per cent. for it instead of three,--there's no harm
in that."

"But there's such a thing as security, look you. He is a warm man,
certainly--very warm--quite respectable--most undoubtedly respectable.
But who knows? A panic may take place; and then these five hundred
companies in which he is engaged may bring him to ruin. There's the
Ginger Beer Company, of which Brough is a director: awkward reports are
abroad concerning it. The Consolid