them separately some expression of regret at his departure; but he had
postponed his farewell till the last evening.

He now bade the maid put wine and glasses on the table; and had the
chairs arranged around the room; and sent Bunce to each of the men to
request they would come and say farewell to their late warden. Soon
the noise of aged scuffling feet was heard upon the gravel and in the
little hall, and the eleven men who were enabled to leave their rooms
were assembled.

"Come in, my friends, come in," said the warden;--he was still warden
then. "Come in, and sit down;" and he took the hand of Abel Handy,
who was the nearest to him, and led the limping grumbler to a chair.
The others followed slowly and bashfully; the infirm, the lame, and
the blind: poor wretches! who had been so happy, had they but known
it! Now their aged faces were covered with shame, and every kind word
from their master was a coal of fire burning on their heads.

When first the news had reached them that Mr Harding was going to
leave the hospital, it had been received with a kind of triumph;--his
departure was, as it were, a prelude to success. He had admitted his
want of right to the money about which they were disputing; and as it
did not belong to him, of course, it did to them. The one hundred a
year to each of them was actually becoming a reality; and Abel Handy
was a hero, and Bunce a faint-hearted sycophant, worthy neither honour
nor fellowship. But other tidings soon made their way into the old
men's rooms. It was first notified to them that the income abandoned
by Mr Harding would not come to them; and these accounts were
confirmed by attorney Finney. They were then informed that Mr
Harding's place would be at once filled by another. That the new
warden could not be a kinder man they all knew; that he would be a
less friendly one most suspected; and then came the bitter information
that, from the moment of Mr Harding's departure, the twopence a day,
his own peculiar gift, must of necessity be withdrawn.

And this was to be the end of all their mighty struggle,--of their
fight for their rights,--of their petition, and their debates, and
their hopes! They were to change the best of masters for a possible
bad one, and to lose twopence a day each man! No; unfortunate as this
was, it was not the worst, or nearly the worst, as will just now be
seen.

"Sit down, sit down, my friends," said the warden; "I want to say a
word