she'll forget her brother unless he shows himself sometimes.'

'Take care,' said the old man with sparkling eyes, 'that she does not
forget you when you would have her memory keenest. Take care that the
day don't come when you walk barefoot in the streets, and she rides by
in a gay carriage of her own.'

'You mean when she has your money?' retorted the other. 'How like a
poor man he talks!'

'And yet,' said the old man dropping his voice and speaking like one
who thinks aloud, 'how poor we are, and what a life it is! The cause is
a young child's guiltless of all harm or wrong, but nothing goes well
with it! Hope and patience, hope and patience!'

These words were uttered in too low a tone to reach the ears of the
young men. Mr Swiveller appeared to think the they implied some mental
struggle consequent upon the powerful effect of his address, for he
poked his friend with his cane and whispered his conviction that he had
administered 'a clincher,' and that he expected a commission on the
profits. Discovering his mistake after a while, he appeared to grow
rather sleepy and discontented, and had more than once suggested the
propriety of an immediate departure, when the door opened, and the
child herself appeared.

CHAPTER 3

The child was closely followed by an elderly man of remarkably hard
features and forbidding aspect, and so low in stature as to be quite a
dwarf, though his head and face were large enough for the body of a
giant. His black eyes were restless, sly, and cunning; his mouth and
chin, bristly with the stubble of a coarse hard beard; and his
complexion was one of that kind which never looks clean or wholesome.
But what added most to the grotesque expression of his face was a
ghastly smile, which, appearing to be the mere result of habit and to
have no connection with any mirthful or complacent feeling, constantly
revealed the few discoloured fangs that were yet scattered in his
mouth, and gave him the aspect of a panting dog. His dress consisted of
a large high-crowned hat, a worn dark suit, a pair of capacious shoes,
and a dirty white neckerchief sufficiently limp and crumpled to
disclose the greater portion of his wiry throat. Such hair as he had
was of a grizzled black, cut short and straight upon his temples, and
hanging in a frowzy fringe about his ears. His hands, which were of a
rough, coarse grain, were very dirty; his fingernails were crooked,
long, and yellow.

There was ample tim