ughingly believed he had been thinking of Miss Wade.

'Why of Miss Wade, Pet?' asked her father.

'Why, indeed!' said Arthur Clennam.

Pet coloured a little, and went to the piano again.

As they broke up for the night, Arthur overheard Doyce ask his host if
he could give him half an hour's conversation before breakfast in the
morning? The host replying willingly, Arthur lingered behind a moment,
having his own word to add to that topic.

'Mr Meagles,' he said, on their being left alone, 'do you remember when
you advised me to go straight to London?'

'Perfectly well.' 'And when you gave me some other good advice which I
needed at that time?'

'I won't say what it was worth,' answered Mr Meagles: 'but of course I
remember our being very pleasant and confidential together.'

'I have acted on your advice; and having disembarrassed myself of an
occupation that was painful to me for many reasons, wish to devote
myself and what means I have, to another pursuit.'

'Right! You can't do it too soon,' said Mr Meagles.

'Now, as I came down to-day, I found that your friend, Mr Doyce, is
looking for a partner in his business--not a partner in his mechanical
knowledge, but in the ways and means of turning the business arising
from it to the best account.'

'Just so,' said Mr Meagles, with his hands in his pockets, and with
the old business expression of face that had belonged to the scales and
scoop.

'Mr Doyce mentioned incidentally, in the course of our conversation,
that he was going to take your valuable advice on the subject of finding
such a partner. If you should think our views and opportunities at all
likely to coincide, perhaps you will let him know my available position.
I speak, of course, in ignorance of the details, and they may be
unsuitable on both sides.'

'No doubt, no doubt,' said Mr Meagles, with the caution belonging to the
scales and scoop.

'But they will be a question of figures and accounts--'

'Just so, just so,' said Mr Meagles, with arithmetical solidity
belonging to the scales and scoop.

'--And I shall be glad to enter into the subject, provided Mr Doyce
responds, and you think well of it. If you will at present, therefore,
allow me to place it in your hands, you will much oblige me.'

'Clennam, I accept the trust with readiness,' said Mr Meagles. 'And
without anticipating any of the points which you, as a man of business,
have of course reserved, I am free to say to you that I thi