s now, eh?"

Reginald, swelling with the indignation Gedge's story had roused in him,
turned his back and made no answer.

Nothing, as he might have known by this time, could have irritated Mr
Durfy more.

"Look here, young gentleman," said the latter, coming close up to
Reginald's side and hissing the words very disagreeably in his ear,
"when I ask a question in this shop I expect to get an answer; mind
that. And what's more, I'll have one, or you leave this place in five
minutes. Come, now, give me a lower-case `x.'"

Reginald hesitated a moment. Suppose Mr Durfy had it in him to be as
good as his word. What then about young Gedge?

He picked up an "x" sullenly, and tossed it at the overseer's feet.

"That's not giving it to me," said the latter, with a sneer of triumph
already on his face. "Pick it up directly, do you hear? and give it to
me."

Reginald stood and glared first at Mr Durfy, then at the type.

Yesterday he would have defiantly told him to pick it up himself, caring
little what the cost might be. But things had changed since then.
Humiliating as it was to own it, he could not afford to be turned off.
His pride could not afford it, his care for young Gedge could not afford
it, the slender family purse could not afford it. Why ever did he not
think of it all before, and spare himself this double indignity?

With a groan which represented as much inward misery and humiliation as
could well be compressed into a single action, he stooped down and
picked up the type and handed it to Mr Durfy.

It was well for him he did not raise his eyes to see the smile with
which that gentleman received it.

"Next time it'll save you trouble to do what you're told at once, Mr
Puppy," he said. "Get on with your work, and don't let me catch you
idling your time any more."

And he walked off crowned with victory and as happy in his mind as if he
had just heard of the decease of his enemy the manager.

It was a bad beginning to the day for Reginald. He had come to work
that morning in a virtuous frame of mind, determined, if possible, to do
his duty peaceably and to hold out a helping hand to young Gedge. It
was hard enough now to think of anything but his own indignities and the
wretch to whom he owed them.

He turned to his work almost viciously, and for an hour buried himself
in it, without saying a word or lifting his eyes from his case. Then
young Gedge, stealing a nervous glance at his face, ve