ters, till
the speakers rose to rejoin the charming flock upstairs.

* * * * *

In the basement story at this hour Mr. Chickerel the butler, who had
formed the subject of discussion on the floor above, was busily engaged
in looking after his two subordinates as they bustled about in the
operations of clearing away. He was a man of whom, if the shape of
certain bones and muscles of the face is ever to be taken as a guide to
the character, one might safely have predicated conscientiousness in the
performance of duties, a thorough knowledge of all that appertained to
them, a general desire to live on without troubling his mind about
anything which did not concern him. Any person interested in the matter
would have assumed without hesitation that the estimate his employer had
given of Chickerel was a true one--more, that not only would the butler
under all ordinary circumstances resolutely prevent his face from showing
curiosity in an unbecoming way, but that, with the soul of a true
gentleman, he would, if necessary, equivocate as readily as the noblest
of his betters to remove any stain upon his honour in such trifles. Hence
it is apparent that if Chickerel's countenance really appeared, as Neigh
had asserted, full of curiosity with regard to the gossip that was going
on, the feelings which led to the exhibition must have been of a very
unusual and irrepressible kind.

His hair was of that peculiar bluish-white which is to be observed when
the oncoming years, instead of singling out special locks of a man's head
for operating against, advance uniformly over the whole field, and
enfeeble the colour at all points before absolutely extinguishing it
anywhere; his nose was of the knotty shape in the gristle and earthward
tendency in the flesh which is commonly said to carry sound judgment
above it, his eyes were thoughtful, and his face was thin--a contour
which, if it at once abstracted from his features that cheerful assurance
of single-minded honesty which adorns the exteriors of so many of his
brethren, might have raised a presumption in the minds of some beholders
that perhaps in this case the quality might not be altogether wanting
within.

The coffee having been served to the people upstairs, one of the footmen
rushed into his bedroom on the lower floor, and in a few minutes emerged
again in the dress of a respectable clerk who had been born for better
things, with the trifling exceptions that he wore a low-crown