working of the line and on various other subjects of great importance to
the shareholders, but of little interest to the general reader; we will
therefore pass them all by and terminate our report of this meeting with
the chairman's concluding remark, which was, that, out of the free
revenue, after deduction of the dividends payable on guaranteed and
preference stocks and other fixed charges, the directors recommended the
payment of a dividend on the ordinary stock of six and a half per cent.

It need scarcely be said that this latter statement was received with
hearty applause and with an irrepressible "he-ar, he-ar!" from the
toady, which was not only tolerated by the meeting, but echoed by the
wag in the distance, who, though his words that day had been few, had
done the shareholders good service nevertheless, inasmuch as he had
quelled, to some extent the propensities of a self-sufficient "bore."

Lest the reader should regard us as a statistical bore, we shall bring
this chapter to a close.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

GERTIE IS MYSTERIOUSLY CARED FOR--SAM NATLY DINES UNDER DIFFICULTIES IN
CONNEXION WITH THE BLOCK SYSTEM.

One day, not long after the half-yearly meeting described in the last
chapter, Mrs Marrot--being at the time engaged with the baby--received
a visit from an elderly gentleman, who introduced himself as a lawyer,
and said that he had been sent by a client to make a proposal to her--

"Of course," he said, with a bland smile, "I do not refer to a
matrimonial proposal."

Mrs Marrot felt and looked surprised, but waited for more in silence.

"To come to the point at once," continued the elderly gentleman, "my
client, who is rather eccentric, has taken a great fancy, it seems, to
your little daughter Gertrude--Gertie he calls her--and is desirous of
giving her a good education, if you have no objection."

Mrs Marrot, being under the impression that this would involve Gertie's
being taken away from her, and being put to a boarding-school, at once
looked her objections so plainly, that her visitor hastened to explain
that his client did not wish Gertie to quit her parents' house, but
merely to go for a few hours each day to the residence of a teacher in
the neighbourhood--a governess--whom he should provide.

This altered the case so much that Mrs Marrot expressed herself quite
ready to allow Gertie to undergo _that_ amount of education, and hoped
it would do her good, though, for her part she d