Who would have thought of seeing Tit, in the name
of goodness?"

"Why," said I, "we only came in by the merest chance."

At this word there was another tremendous roar: and it is a positive
fact, that every man of the eighteen had said he came by chance! However,
chance gave us a very jovial night; and that hospitable Bob Swinney paid
every shilling of the score.

"Gentlemen!" says he, as he paid the bill, "I'll give you the health of
John Brough, Esquire, and thanks to him for the present of 21_l_. 5_s_.
which he made me this morning. What do I say--21_l_. 5_s_.? That and a
month's salary that I should have had to pay--forfeit--down on the nail,
by Jingo! for leaving the shop, as I intended to do to-morrow morning.
I've got a place--a tip-top place, I tell you. Five guineas a week, six
journeys a year, my own horse and gig, and to travel in the West of
England in oil and spermaceti. Here's confusion to gas, and the health
of Messrs. Gann and Co., of Thames Street, in the City of London!"

I have been thus particular in my account of the West Diddlesex Insurance
Office, and of Mr. Brough, the managing director (though the real names
are neither given to the office nor to the chairman, as you may be sure),
because the fate of me and my diamond pin was mysteriously bound up with
both: as I am about to show.

You must know that I was rather respected among our gents at the West
Diddlesex, because I came of a better family than most of them; had
received a classical education; and especially because I had a rich aunt,
Mrs. Hoggarty, about whom, as must be confessed, I used to boast a good
deal. There is no harm in being respected in this world, as I have found
out; and if you don't brag a little for yourself, depend on it there is
no person of your acquaintance who will tell the world of your merits,
and take the trouble off your hands.

So that when I came back to the office after my visit at home, and took
my seat at the old day-book opposite the dingy window that looks into
Birchin Lane, I pretty soon let the fellows know that Mrs. Hoggarty,
though she had not given me a large sum of money, as I expected--indeed,
I had promised a dozen of them a treat down the river, should the
promised riches have come to me--I let them know, I say, that though my
aunt had not given me any money, she had given me a splendid diamond,
worth at least thirty guineas, and that some day I would sport it at the
shop.

"Oh, let's