; to Mr. Polonius, the celebrated
jeweller, likewise; to fashionable milliners and dressmakers,
moreover;--and all this upon a salary of 200_l_. per annum. For so young
a gentleman it must be confessed you have employed your time well."

"Has this anything to do with the question, sir?" says I. "Am I here to
give an account of my private debts, or to speak as to what I know
regarding the affairs of the Company? As for my share in it, I have a
mother, sir, and many sisters--"

"The d-d scoundrel!" shouts the Captain.

"Silence that there fellow!" shouts Gus, as bold as brass; at which the
court burst out laughing, and this gave me courage to proceed.

"My mother, sir, four years since, having a legacy of 400_l_. left to
her, advised with her solicitor, Mr. Smithers, how she should dispose of
this sum; and as the Independent West Diddlesex was just then
established, the money was placed in an annuity in that office, where I
procured a clerkship. You may suppose me a very hardened criminal,
because I have ordered clothes of Mr. Von Stiltz; but you will hardly
fancy that I, a lad of nineteen, knew anything of the concerns of the
Company into whose service I entered as twentieth clerk, my own mother's
money paying, as it were, for my place. Well, sir, the interest offered
by the Company was so tempting, that a rich relative of mine was induced
to purchase a number of shares."

"Who induced your relative, if I may make so bold as to inquire?"

"I can't help owning, sir," says I, blushing, "that I wrote a letter
myself. But consider, my relative was sixty years old, and I was twenty-
one. My relative took several months to consider, and had the advice of
her lawyers before she acceded to my request. And I made it at the
instigation of Mr. Brough, who dictated the letter which I wrote, and who
I really thought then was as rich as Mr. Rothschild himself."

"Your friend placed her money in your name; and you, if I mistake not,
Mr. Titmarsh, were suddenly placed over the heads of twelve of your
fellow-clerks as a reward for your service in obtaining it?"

"It is very true, sir,"--and, as I confessed it, poor Mary began to wipe
her eyes, and Gus's ears (I could not see his face) looked like two red-
hot muffins--"it's quite true, sir; and, as matters have turned out, I am
heartily sorry for what I did. But at the time I thought I could serve
my aunt as well as myself; and you must remember, then, how high our
share