an, as the advertisements
signed X. Y. have it, were Mr. Dummie Dunnaker and Mr. Pepper, surnamed
the Long. The latter, however, while he obliged the heir to the Mug,
never condescended to enter that noted place of resort; and the former,
whenever he good-naturedly opened his purse-strings, did it with a
hearty caution to shun the acquaintance of Long Ned,--"a parson," said
Dummie, "of wery dangerous morals, and not by no manner of means a fit
'sociate for a young gemman of cracter like leetle Paul!" So earnest
was this caution, and so especially pointed at Long Ned,--although
the company of Mr. Allfair or Mr. Finish might be said to be no less
prejudicial,--that it is probable that stately fastidiousness of manner
which Lord Normanby rightly observes, in one of his excellent novels,
makes so many enemies in the world, and which sometimes characterized
the behaviour of Long Ned, especially towards the men of commerce, was
a main reason why Dummie was so acutely and peculiarly alive to the
immoralities of that lengthy gentleman. At the same time we must observe
that when Paul, remembering what Pepper had said respecting his early
adventure with Mr. Dunnaker, repeated it to the merchant, Dummie could
not conceal a certain confusion, though he merely remarked, with a sort
of laugh, that it was not worth speaking about; and it appeared evident
to Paul that something unpleasant to the man of rags, which was not
shared by the unconscious Pepper, lurked in the reminiscence of their
past acquaintance. How beit, the circumstance glided from Paul's
attention the moment afterwards; and he paid, we are concerned to
say, equally little heed to the cautions against Ned with which Dummie
regaled him.

Perhaps (for we must now direct a glance towards his domestic concerns)
one great cause which drove Paul to Fish Lane was the uncomfortable
life he led at home. For though Mrs. Lobkins was extremely fond of her
protege, yet she was possessed, as her customers emphatically remarked,
"of the devil's own temper;" and her native coarseness never having been
softened by those pictures of gay society which had, in many a novel and
comic farce, refined the temperament of the romantic Paul, her manner of
venting her maternal reproaches was certainly not a little revolting to
a lad of some delicacy of feeling. Indeed, it often occurred to him
to leave her house altogether, and seek his fortunes alone, after the
manner of the ingenious Gil Blas or