hich his wife administered? He, Robinson, had
longed for married bliss, but now he longed no longer.

On the following Monday and Tuesday he went silently about his work,
speaking hardly a word to anybody. Mr. Brown greeted him with an
apologetic sigh, and Jones with a triumphant sneer; but he responded
to neither of them. He once met Maryanne in the passage, and bowed to
her with a low salute, but he did not speak to her. He did not speak
to her, but he saw the colour in her cheek, and watched her downcast
eye. He was still weak as water, and had she clung to him even then,
he would even then have forgiven her! But she passed on, and, as she
left the house, she slammed the door behind her.

A little incident happened on that day, which is mentioned to show
that, even in his present frame of mind, Robinson was able to take
advantage of the smallest incident on behalf of his firm. A slight
crowd had been collected round the door in the afternoon, for there
had been a quarrel between Mr. Jones and one of the young men, in
which loud words had reached the street, and a baby, which a woman
held in her arms, had been somewhat pressed and hurt. As soon as the
tidings reached Robinson's ears he was instantly at his desk, and
before the trifling accident was two hours passed, the following bill
was in the printer's hands;--

CAUTION TO MOTHERS!--MOTHERS, BEWARE!

Three suckling infants were yesterday pressed to death in
their mothers' arms by the crowd which had congregated
before the house of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, at Nine
times Nine, Bishopsgate Street, in their attempts to be
among the first purchasers of that wonderful lot of cheap
but yet excellent flannels, which B., J., and R. have just
imported. Such flannels, at such a price, were never before
offered to the British public. The sale, at the figures
quoted below, will continue for three days more.

_Magenta House._

And then followed the list.

It had chanced that Mr. Brown had picked up a lot of remnants
from a wholesale house in Houndsditch, and the genius of Robinson
immediately combined that fact with the little accident above
mentioned.

CHAPTER XX.

SHOWING HOW MR. BRISKET DIDN'T SEE HIS WAY.

Then two months passed by, and the summer was over. Early in
September Mr. Brown had been taken ill, and he went to Margate for
a fortnight with his unmarried daughter. This had been the means of
keeping Briske