to bed when I like, get up when I like, come in when I like, go
out when I like--to be asked no questions and be surrounded by no
spies. In this last respect, servants are the devil. There's only one
here.'

'And a very little one,' said Dick.

'And a very little one,' repeated the lodger. 'Well, the place will
suit me, will it?'

'Yes,' said Dick.

'Sharks, I suppose?' said the lodger.

Dick nodded assent, and drained his glass.

'Let them know my humour,' said the single gentleman, rising. 'If they
disturb me, they lose a good tenant. If they know me to be that, they
know enough. If they try to know more, it's a notice to quit. It's
better to understand these things at once. Good day.'

'I beg your pardon,' said Dick, halting in his passage to the door,
which the lodger prepared to open. 'When he who adores thee has left
but the name--'

'What do you mean?'

'--But the name,' said Dick--'has left but the name--in case of letters
or parcels--'

'I never have any,' returned the lodger.

'Or in the case anybody should call.'

'Nobody ever calls on me.'

'If any mistake should arise from not having the name, don't say it was
my fault, Sir,' added Dick, still lingering.--'Oh blame not the bard--'

'I'll blame nobody,' said the lodger, with such irascibility that in a
moment Dick found himself on the staircase, and the locked door between
them.

Mr Brass and Miss Sally were lurking hard by, having been, indeed, only
routed from the keyhole by Mr Swiveller's abrupt exit. As their utmost
exertions had not enabled them to overhear a word of the interview,
however, in consequence of a quarrel for precedence, which, though
limited of necessity to pushes and pinches and such quiet pantomime,
had lasted the whole time, they hurried him down to the office to hear
his account of the conversation.

This Mr Swiveller gave them--faithfully as regarded the wishes and
character of the single gentleman, and poetically as concerned the
great trunk, of which he gave a description more remarkable for
brilliancy of imagination than a strict adherence to truth; declaring,
with many strong asseverations, that it contained a specimen of every
kind of rich food and wine, known in these times, and in particular
that it was of a self-acting kind and served up whatever was required,
as he supposed by clock-work. He also gave them to understand that the
cooking apparatus roasted a fine piece of sirloin of beef, weighin