rtisement, Ben. It is a practice, a very
extensive practice--and that's all.'

'Bob,' said Mr. Ben Allen, laying down his knife and fork, and fixing
his eyes on the visage of his friend, 'Bob, I'll tell you what it is.'

'What is it?' inquired Mr. Bob Sawyer.

'You must make yourself, with as little delay as possible, master of
Arabella's one thousand pounds.'

'Three per cent. consolidated bank annuities, now standing in her
name in the book or books of the governor and company of the Bank of
England,' added Bob Sawyer, in legal phraseology.

'Exactly so,' said Ben. 'She has it when she comes of age, or marries.
She wants a year of coming of age, and if you plucked up a spirit she
needn't want a month of being married.'

'She's a very charming and delightful creature,' quoth Mr. Robert
Sawyer, in reply; 'and has only one fault that I know of, Ben. It
happens, unfortunately, that that single blemish is a want of taste. She
don't like me.'

'It's my opinion that she don't know what she does like,' said Mr. Ben
Allen contemptuously.

'Perhaps not,' remarked Mr. Bob Sawyer. 'But it's my opinion that she
does know what she doesn't like, and that's of more importance.'

'I wish,' said Mr. Ben Allen, setting his teeth together, and speaking
more like a savage warrior who fed on raw wolf's flesh which he carved
with his fingers, than a peaceable young gentleman who ate minced veal
with a knife and fork--'I wish I knew whether any rascal really has been
tampering with her, and attempting to engage her affections. I think I
should assassinate him, Bob.'

'I'd put a bullet in him, if I found him out,' said Mr. Sawyer, stopping
in the course of a long draught of beer, and looking malignantly out
of the porter pot. 'If that didn't do his business, I'd extract it
afterwards, and kill him that way.'

Mr. Benjamin Allen gazed abstractedly on his friend for some minutes in
silence, and then said--

'You have never proposed to her, point-blank, Bob?'

'No. Because I saw it would be of no use,' replied Mr. Robert Sawyer.

'You shall do it, before you are twenty-four hours older,' retorted Ben,
with desperate calmness. 'She shall have you, or I'll know the reason
why. I'll exert my authority.'

'Well,' said Mr. Bob Sawyer, 'we shall see.'

'We shall see, my friend,' replied Mr. Ben Allen fiercely. He paused for
a few seconds, and added in a voice broken by emotion, 'You have loved
her from a child, my friend. You loved