n illuminating ray of sunshine fell upon his upper lip, was readily
visible to the naked eye.

A somewhat prim and characterless person, with more teeth than his mouth
seemed able to accommodate, Mr. Pemble was the _bete noir_ of Jenks, the
dog-loving shop-boy, who, with a sly wink to Henry and an expressive
grimace, indicated unmistakably his opinion of the senior assistant.

This was a sign to the new-comer that if he cared to make common cause
against Mr. Pemble, Jenks was with him to the death; but Henry, either
in his rustic simplicity or his lofty indifference to the youngster, did
not respond, and waited for Mr. Pemble to languidly acknowledge his
presence.

"Ah, you're the new assistant Mr. Griggs was speaking of," he said at
length.

"Yes, sir," replied Henry, and at the delicious sound of the flattering
"sir" Mr. Pemble endeavoured to tug his laggard moustache. "Mr. Griggs
says I'm to have a look round until he is ready," Henry went on, casting
a dubious glance at the walls and the thickly-strewn floor.

"Oh, that's all right," drawled Mr. Pemble, who now turned his attention
to some small parcels that had arrived by the morning's post.

In a little while Mr. Griggs appeared, fully clothed, by the addition
of a faded black morning coat and a creased white collar. He beckoned
Henry into the back-parlour, which served as a sort of office and a
general lumber-room.

"Sit you down, my lad, and let's see what we have here," he said,
pointing to a crazy arm-chair beside an old Pembroke table, on which a
broken ink-bottle and some rusty pens lay, together with a muddle of
notepaper.

The bookseller then turned to a large case of old volumes recently
acquired at the sale of a country house, and picking up several of these
he flapped the dust from them, puffing and blowing like a walrus.
Glancing briefly at the title-pages of the first two, he threw them in a
corner with a brief but emphatic "Rubbish!" The next fished forth
satisfied him better, and taking up one of his latest catalogues, he
showed Henry how to write down the title and description of the book.

So he proceeded for a time, initiating the youth in the art of
cataloguing, which with Mr. Griggs did not take a particularly exalted
form. He eschewed such aids to ready references as alphabetical entry,
and was content so long as the principal items of his stock appeared on
his printed list, quite irrespective of order or value. These lists,
villain