s half likeness
which he had already detected between the face of Benjamin and the face
of another man, whom he had seen at a past time in very different
circumstances. He determined, before leaving the House, to have one more
look at the wretched muddled creature; and accordingly shook him up
smartly, and propped him against the staircase wall, before his mother
could interfere.

"Leave him to me; I'll freshen him up," says Trottle to the old woman,
looking hard in Benjamin's face, while he spoke.

The fright and surprise of being suddenly woke up, seemed, for about a
quarter of a minute, to sober the creature. When he first opened his
eyes, there was a new look in them for a moment, which struck home to
Trottle's memory as quick and as clear as a flash of light. The old
maudlin sleepy expression came back again in another instant, and blurred
out all further signs and tokens of the past. But Trottle had seen
enough in the moment before it came; and he troubled Benjamin's face with
no more inquiries.

"Next Monday, at dusk," says he, cutting short some more of the old
woman's palaver about Benjamin's indisgestion. "I've got no more time to
spare, ma'am, to-night: please to let me out."

With a few last blessings, a few last dutiful messages to good Mr.
Forley, and a few last friendly hints not to forget next Monday at dusk,
Trottle contrived to struggle through the sickening business of leave-
taking; to get the door opened; and to find himself, to his own
indescribable relief, once more on the outer side of the House To Let.

LET AT LAST

"There, ma'am!" said Trottle, folding up the manuscript from which he had
been reading, and setting it down with a smart tap of triumph on the
table. "May I venture to ask what you think of that plain statement, as
a guess on my part (and not on Mr. Jarber's) at the riddle of the empty
House?"

For a minute or two I was unable to say a word. When I recovered a
little, my first question referred to the poor forlorn little boy.

"To-day is Monday the twentieth," I said. "Surely you have not let a
whole week go by without trying to find out something more?"

"Except at bed-time, and meals, ma'am," answered Trottle, "I have not let
an hour go by. Please to understand that I have only come to an end of
what I have written, and not to an end of what I have done. I wrote down
those first particulars, ma'am, because they are of great importance, and
also because