, began to make a very small note in one corner.

'We can never be too cautious,' said Mr Brass. 'There is a deal of
wickedness going about the world, a deal of wickedness. Did the
gentleman happen to say, Sir--but never mind that at present, sir;
finish that little memorandum first.'

Dick did so, and handed it to Mr Brass, who had dismounted from his
stool, and was walking up and down the office.

'Oh, this is the memorandum, is it?' said Brass, running his eye over
the document. 'Very good. Now, Mr Richard, did the gentleman say
anything else?'

'No.'

'Are you sure, Mr Richard,' said Brass, solemnly, 'that the gentleman
said nothing else?'

'Devil a word, Sir,' replied Dick.

'Think again, Sir,' said Brass; 'it's my duty, Sir, in the position in
which I stand, and as an honourable member of the legal profession--the
first profession in this country, Sir, or in any other country, or in
any of the planets that shine above us at night and are supposed to be
inhabited--it's my duty, Sir, as an honourable member of that
profession, not to put to you a leading question in a matter of this
delicacy and importance. Did the gentleman, Sir, who took the first
floor of you yesterday afternoon, and who brought with him a box of
property--a box of property--say anything more than is set down in this
memorandum?'

'Come, don't be a fool,' said Miss Sally.

Dick looked at her, and then at Brass, and then at Miss Sally again,
and still said 'No.'

'Pooh, pooh! Deuce take it, Mr Richard, how dull you are!' cried
Brass, relaxing into a smile. 'Did he say anything about his
property?--there!'

'That's the way to put it,' said Miss Sally, nodding to her brother.

'Did he say, for instance,' added Brass, in a kind of comfortable, cozy
tone--'I don't assert that he did say so, mind; I only ask you, to
refresh your memory--did he say, for instance, that he was a stranger
in London--that it was not his humour or within his ability to give any
references--that he felt we had a right to require them--and that, in
case anything should happen to him, at any time, he particularly
desired that whatever property he had upon the premises should be
considered mine, as some slight recompense for the trouble and
annoyance I should sustain--and were you, in short,' added Brass, still
more comfortably and cozily than before, 'were you induced to accept
him on my behalf, as a tenant, upon those conditions?'

'Certainly not,' rep