also an old Turkey carpet on the floor. Other
furniture there was none. Can it be a matter of surprise to any one
that Mr Vavasor preferred his club to his place of business? He was
not left quite alone in this deathlike dungeon. Attached to his own
large room there was a small closet, in which sat the signing-clerk's
clerk,--a lad of perhaps seventeen years of age, who spent the
greatest part of his time playing tit-tat-to by himself upon official
blotting-paper. Had I been Mr Vavasor I should have sworn a bosom
friendship with that lad, have told him all my secrets, and joined
his youthful games.

"Come in!" Mr Vavasor had cried when John Grey disturbed his slumber
by knocking at the door. "I'm glad to see you,--very. Sit down; won't
you? Did you ever see such a wretched fire? The coals they give you
in this place are the worst in all London. Did you ever see such
coals?" And he gave a wicked poke at the fire.

It was now the 1st of May, and Grey, who had walked from Suffolk
Street, was quite warm. "One hardly wants a fire at all, such weather
as this," he said.

"Oh; don't you?" said the signing-clerk. "If you had to sit here all
day, you'd see if you didn't want a fire. It's the coldest building I
ever put my foot in. Sometimes in winter I have to sit here the whole
day in a great-coat. I only wish I could shut old Sugden up here for
a week or two, after Christmas." The great lawyer whom he had named
was the man whom he supposed to have inflicted on him the terrible
injury of his life, and he was continually invoking small misfortunes
on the head of that tyrant.

"How is Alice?" said Grey, desiring to turn the subject from the
ten-times-told tale of his friend's wrongs.

Mr Vavasor sighed. "She is well enough, I believe," he said.

"Is anything the matter in Queen Anne Street?"

"You'll hardly believe it when I tell you; and, indeed, I hardly know
whether I ought to tell you or not."

"As you and I have gone so far together, I think that you ought to
tell me anything that concerns her nearly."

"That's just it. It's about her money. Do you know, Grey, I'm
beginning to think that I've been wrong in allowing you to advance
what you have done on her account?"

"Why wrong?"

"Because I foresee there'll be a difficulty about it. How are we to
manage about the repayment?"

"If she becomes my wife there will be no management wanted."

"But how if she never becomes your wife? I'm beginning to think
she'll