good situation in one of the warehouses at the docks."

"That's well," returned the Captain, with satisfaction. "I had hopes of
that young feller from the night you mention. Now, mother, I'm off.
Gillie and I have some business to transact up the water. Very
particular business--eh, lad?"

"Oh! wery partickler," said Gillie, responding to his patron's glance
with a powerful wink.

Expressing a hope that Susan would keep Mrs Roby company till he
returned, the Captain left the room with his usual heavy roll, and the
spider followed with imitative swagger.

Captain Wopper was fond of mystery. Although he had, to some extent
made a confidant of the boy for whom he had taken so strong a fancy, he
nevertheless usually maintained a dignified distance of demeanour
towards him, and a certain amount of reticence, which, as a stern
disciplinarian, he deemed to be essential. This, however, did not
prevent him from indulging in occasional, not to say frequent,
unbendings of disposition, which he condescended to exhibit by way of
encouragement to his small _protege_; but these unbendings and
confidences were always more or less shrouded in mystery. Many of them,
indeed, consisted of nothing more intelligible than nods, grins, and
winks.

"That'll be rather a nice cottage when it's launched," said the Captain,
pointing to a building in process of erection, which stood so close to
the edge of the Thames that its being launched seemed as much a literal
allusion as a metaphor.

"Raither bobbish," assented the spider.

"Clean run fore and aft with bluff bows, like a good sea-boat," said the
Captain. "Come, let's have a look at it."

Asking permission to enter of a workman who granted the same with, what
appeared to Gillie, an unnecessarily broad grin, the Captain led the way
up a spiral staircase. It bore such a strong resemblance to the
familiar one of Grubb's Court that Gillie's eyes enlarged with surprise,
and he looked involuntarily back for his soapy mother and the babe in
the mud. There were, however, strong points of dissimilarity, inasmuch
as there was no mud or filth of any kind near the new building except
lime; and the stair, instead of leading like that of the Tower of Babel
an interminable distance upwards, ended abruptly at the second floor.
Here, however, there was a passage exactly similar to the passage
leading to Mrs Roby's cabin, save that it was well lighted, and at the
end thereof was an almost exa