d no wine in the cupboard, we had plenty of
ale, and gin-punch afterwards. And Gus sat at the foot of the table, and
I at the head; and we sang songs, both comic and sentimental, and drank
toasts; and I made a speech that there is no possibility of mentioning
here, because, _entre nous_, I had quite forgotten in the morning
everything that had taken place after a certain period on the night
before.

CHAPTER IV

HOW THE HAPPY DIAMOND-WEARER DINES AT PENTONVILLE

I did not go to the office till half-an-hour after opening time on
Monday. If the truth must be told, I was not sorry to let Hoskins have
the start of me, and tell the chaps what had taken place,--for we all
have our little vanities, and I liked to be thought well of by my
companions.

When I came in, I saw my business had been done, by the way in which the
chaps looked at me; especially Abednego, who offered me a pinch out of
his gold snuff-box the very first thing. Roundhand shook me, too, warmly
by the hand, when he came round to look over my day-book, said I wrote a
capital hand (and indeed I believe I do, without any sort of flattery),
and invited me for dinner next Sunday, in Myddelton Square. "You won't
have," said he, "quite such a grand turn-out as with _your friends at the
West End_"--he said this with a particular accent--"but Amelia and I are
always happy to see a friend in our plain way,--pale sherry, old port,
and cut and come again. Hey?"

I said I would come and bring Hoskins too.

He answered that I was very polite, and that he should be very happy to
see Hoskins; and we went accordingly at the appointed day and hour; but
though Gus was eleventh clerk and I twelfth, I remarked that at dinner I
was helped first and best. I had twice as many force-meat balls as
Hoskins in my mock-turtle, and pretty nearly all the oysters out of the
sauce-boat. Once, Roundhand was going to help Gus before me; when his
wife, who was seated at the head of the table, looking very big and
fierce in red crape and a turban, shouted out, "ANTONY!" and poor R.
dropped the plate, and blushed as red as anything. How Mrs. R. did talk
to me about the West End to be sure! She had a "Peerage," as you may be
certain, and knew everything about the Drum family in a manner that quite
astonished me. She asked me how much Lord Drum had a year; whether I
thought he had twenty, thirty, forty, or a hundred and fifty thousand a
year; whether I was invited to Drum C