ss Morleena approaching to do homage, in compliance with this
injunction, was summarily caught up and kissed by Mr Lillyvick; and
thereupon Mrs Kenwigs darted forward and kissed the collector, and
an irrepressible murmur of applause broke from the company who had
witnessed his magnanimity.

The worthy gentleman then became once more the life and soul of the
society; being again reinstated in his old post of lion, from which high
station the temporary distraction of their thoughts had for a moment
dispossessed him. Quadruped lions are said to be savage, only when they
are hungry; biped lions are rarely sulky longer than when their appetite
for distinction remains unappeased. Mr Lillyvick stood higher than ever;
for he had shown his power; hinted at his property and testamentary
intentions; gained great credit for disinterestedness and virtue; and,
in addition to all, was finally accommodated with a much larger tumbler
of punch than that which Newman Noggs had so feloniously made off with.

'I say! I beg everybody's pardon for intruding again,' said Crowl,
looking in at this happy juncture; 'but what a queer business this is,
isn't it? Noggs has lived in this house, now going on for five years,
and nobody has ever been to see him before, within the memory of the
oldest inhabitant.'

'It's a strange time of night to be called away, sir, certainly,' said
the collector; 'and the behaviour of Mr Noggs himself, is, to say the
least of it, mysterious.'

'Well, so it is,' rejoined Growl; 'and I'll tell you what's more--I
think these two geniuses, whoever they are, have run away from
somewhere.'

'What makes you think that, sir?' demanded the collector, who seemed, by
a tacit understanding, to have been chosen and elected mouthpiece to
the company. 'You have no reason to suppose that they have run away from
anywhere without paying the rates and taxes due, I hope?'

Mr Crowl, with a look of some contempt, was about to enter a general
protest against the payment of rates or taxes, under any circumstances,
when he was checked by a timely whisper from Kenwigs, and several frowns
and winks from Mrs K., which providentially stopped him.

'Why the fact is,' said Crowl, who had been listening at Newman's door
with all his might and main; 'the fact is, that they have been talking
so loud, that they quite disturbed me in my room, and so I couldn't
help catching a word here, and a word there; and all I heard, certainly
seemed to ref