Several men were seated smoking in the hall, and a little knot, of
which Lionel Beauchamp was the principal figure, attracted Mr.
Cottrell's attention.

"Ah, my lords of Greenwich and Gravesend!" he exclaimed gaily, "all the
world is much exercised about you and your doings. Wondrous are the
stories afloat as to the fitting out of your ship, and all the fun that
you have prepared for us. People don't know what to expect. Some say
you are about to revive the old Folly and Ranelagh. Others that you
have rolled the Italian Opera and Willis's Rooms all into one, and put
it on board ship."

"I can't say what they expect in the way of entertainment," exclaimed
Beauchamp, "but they seem to think that we have at all events chartered
the Great Eastern. We are perfectly inundated with applications for
tickets."

"No doubt," replied Cottrell, as he took a chair beside them; "and from
people of whose existence you were in happy ignorance. To extend your
acquaintance, only give a big show of some sort, and let it be known
that a card of invitation is well-nigh an impossibility. But what a
very dandy cigar-case!" and as he spoke Cottrell lifted from the table
by Beauchamp's side a very smart specimen of the article in question,
made of maroon velvet, with a monogram embroidered on one side, and the
motto, "_Loquaces si sapiat vitet_," on the other. "Very pretty
indeed," he continued, looking at the monogram; "but surely you don't
spell Lionel with a T?"

"No," replied Beauchamp, laughing; "I spell it with an 'L,' like other
people; but that cigar-case was neither embroidered nor made for me."

"I see," rejoined Cottrell: "you have been annexing a friend's
property. I regret to see the notorious laxity of principle on the
subject of umbrellas is extending to cigar-cases."

"Wrong again," replied Beauchamp. "I am in perfectly legitimate
possession of the case, although it was not made for me."

Insatiable thirst for gossip is naturally allied with insatiable
curiosity, and Mr. Cottrell was no exception.

"J. B., J. B.?" he said, still fingering the case.

"I have it! I am right, for a dollar! You borrowed it from Jim Bloxam
when we were down at Todborough."

"No," returned Lionel, much amused; "you are wrong again. I had a
commission to get that case made----"

"For Jim Bloxam," interposed Cottrell quickly.

"I didn't say that," returned Lionel; "anyhow, it was not wanted; and
at the risk of being accused of