lied Mr Venus, 'but be
it so.'

It being so, here is Saturday evening come, and here is Mr Venus come,
and ringing at the Bower-gate.

Mr Wegg opens the gate, descries a sort of brown paper truncheon under
Mr Venus's arm, and remarks, in a dry tone: 'Oh! I thought perhaps you
might have come in a cab.'

'No, Mr Wegg,' replies Venus. 'I am not above a parcel.'

'Above a parcel! No!' says Wegg, with some dissatisfaction. But does not
openly growl, 'a certain sort of parcel might be above you.'

'Here is your purchase, Mr Wegg,' says Venus, politely handing it over,
'and I am glad to restore it to the source from whence it--flowed.'

'Thankee,' says Wegg. 'Now this affair is concluded, I may mention to
you in a friendly way that I've my doubts whether, if I had consulted a
lawyer, you could have kept this article back from me. I only throw it
out as a legal point.'

'Do you think so, Mr Wegg? I bought you in open contract.'

'You can't buy human flesh and blood in this country, sir; not alive,
you can't,' says Wegg, shaking his head. 'Then query, bone?'

'As a legal point?' asks Venus.

'As a legal point.'

'I am not competent to speak upon that, Mr Wegg,' says Venus, reddening
and growing something louder; 'but upon a point of fact I think myself
competent to speak; and as a point of fact I would have seen you--will
you allow me to say, further?'

'I wouldn't say more than further, if I was you,' Mr Wegg suggests,
pacifically.

--'Before I'd have given that packet into your hand without being paid
my price for it. I don't pretend to know how the point of law may stand,
but I'm thoroughly confident upon the point of fact.'

As Mr Venus is irritable (no doubt owing to his disappointment in love),
and as it is not the cue of Mr Wegg to have him out of temper, the
latter gentleman soothingly remarks, 'I only put it as a little case; I
only put it ha'porthetically.'

'Then I'd rather, Mr Wegg, you put it another time, penn'orth-etically,'
is Mr Venus's retort, 'for I tell you candidly I don't like your little
cases.'

Arrived by this time in Mr Wegg's sitting-room, made bright on the
chilly evening by gaslight and fire, Mr Venus softens and compliments
him on his abode; profiting by the occasion to remind Wegg that he
(Venus) told him he had got into a good thing.

'Tolerable,' Wegg rejoins. 'But bear in mind, Mr Venus, that there's
no gold without its alloy. Mix for yourself and take a seat in the
chimb