en, the appointment is now for to-morrow at
one."--"No use in staying, my honest fellow, your own landlord could n't
see Mr. Dunn to-day." In the midst of such brief phrases as these, while
he scattered hopes and disappointments about him, he suddenly paused to
read a card, stealing a quick glance at the individual who presented it
"'Mr. Annesley Beecher.' By appointment, sir?"

"Well, I suppose I might say yes," muttered the visitor, while he turned
to a short and very overdressed person at his side for counsel in the
difficulty.

"To be sure--by appointment," said the other, confidently, while he
bestowed on the butler a look of unmistakable defiance.

"And this--gentleman--is with you, sir?" asked the butler, pausing ere
he pronounced the designation. "Might I request to have his name?"

"Captain Davis," said the short man, interposing. "Write it under your
own, Beecher."

While Mr. Annesley Beecher was thus occupied,--and, sooth to say, it
was an office he did not discharge with much despatch,--Clowes had ample
time to scan the appearance and style of the strangers.

"If you 'll step this way, sir," said Clowes, addressing Beecher only,
"I'll send in your card at once." And he ushered them as he spoke into
the thronged dinner-room, whose crowded company sat silent and moody,
each man regarding his neighbor with a kind of reproachful expression,
as though the especial cause of the long delay he was undergoing.

"You ought to 'tip' that flunkey, Beecher," said Davis, as soon as they
were alone in a window.

"Haven't the tin, Master Grog!" said the other, laughing; while
he added, in a lower voice, "Do you know, Grog, I don't feel quite
comfortable here. Rather mixed company, ain't it, for a fellow who only
goes out of a Sunday?"

"All safe," muttered Davis. "These all are bank directors or railway
swells. I wish we had the robbing of them!"

"Good deal of humbug about all this, ain't there?" whispered Beecher, as
he threw his eyes over the crowded room.

"Of course there is," replied the other. "While he's keeping us all
kicking our shins here, he's reading the 'Times,' or gossiping with a
friend, or weighing a double letter for the post. It was the dentists
took up the dodge first, and the nobs followed them."

"I 'm not going to stand it much longer, Grog. I tell you I don't feel
comfortable."

"Stuff and nonsense! You don't fancy any of these chaps has a writ in
his pocket, do you? Why, I can tell y