tlessly uneasy in any settled
place, and wandered from ceiling to floor, and corner to corner, with
an inquisitive though apparently careless glance, as if seeking for
something to admire or haply to appropriate; it also seemed to be the
especial care of Mr. Brown to veil, as far as he was able, the vivacity
of his looks beneath an expression of open and unheeding good-nature, an
expression strangely enough contrasting with the closeness and sagacity
which Nature had indelibly stamped upon features pointed, aquiline, and
impressed with a strong mixture of the Judaical physiognomy. The manner
and bearing of this gentleman partook of the same undecided character
as his countenance: they seemed to be struggling between civility and
importance; a real eagerness to make the acquaintance of the person
he addressed, and an assumed recklessness of the advantages which that
acquaintance could bestow;--it was like the behaviour of a man who is
desirous of having the best possible motives imputed to him, but is
fearful lest that desire should not be utterly fulfilled. At the first
glance you would have pledged yourself for his respectability; at the
second, you would have half suspected him to be a rogue; and, after you
had been half an hour in his company, you would confess yourself in the
obscurest doubt which was the better guess, the first or the last.

"Waiter!" said Mr. Brown, looking enviously at the viands upon which
Linden, having satisfied his curiosity, was now with all the appetite of
youth regaling himself. "Waiter!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Bring me a sandwich--and--and, waiter, see that I have plenty
of--plenty of--"

"What, sir?"

"Plenty of mustard, waiter."

"Mustard" (and here Mr. Brown addressed himself to Clarence) "is a very
wonderful assistance to the digestion. By the by, sir, if you want any
curiously fine mustard, I can procure you some pots quite capital,--a
great favour, though,--they were smuggled from France, especially for
the use of the late Lady Waddilove."

"Thank you," said Linden, dryly; "I shall be very happy to accept
anything you may wish to offer me."

Mr. Brown took a pocket-book from his pouch. "Six pots of mustard,
sir,--shall I say six?"

"As many as you please," replied Clarence; and Mr. Brown wrote down "Six
pots of French mustard."

"You are a very young gentleman, sir," said Mr. Brown, "probably
intended for some profession: I don't mean to be impertinent, but if I
can be of any