ecimens", don't you see?
Johnny, I believe I've hit the nail at last.'

'Well, it sounds more feasible,' admitted John.

'Of course we must take assumed names,' continued Morris. 'It would
never do to keep our own. What do you say to "Masterman" itself? It
sounds quiet and dignified.'

'I will NOT take the name of Masterman,' returned his brother; 'you may,
if you like. I shall call myself Vance--the Great Vance; positively the
last six nights. There's some go in a name like that.'

'Vance?' cried Morris. 'Do you think we are playing a pantomime for our
amusement? There was never anybody named Vance who wasn't a music-hall
singer.'

'That's the beauty of it,' returned John; 'it gives you some standing at
once. You may call yourself Fortescue till all's blue, and nobody cares;
but to be Vance gives a man a natural nobility.'

'But there's lots of other theatrical names,' cried Morris. 'Leybourne,
Irving, Brough, Toole--'

'Devil a one will I take!' returned his brother. 'I am going to have my
little lark out of this as well as you.'

'Very well,' said Morris, who perceived that John was determined to
carry his point, 'I shall be Robert Vance.'

'And I shall be George Vance,' cried John, 'the only original George
Vance! Rally round the only original!'

Repairing as well as they were able the disorder of their clothes, the
Finsbury brothers returned to Browndean by a circuitous route in quest
of luncheon and a suitable cottage. It is not always easy to drop at
a moment's notice on a furnished residence in a retired locality; but
fortune presently introduced our adventurers to a deaf carpenter, a man
rich in cottages of the required description, and unaffectedly eager to
supply their wants. The second place they visited, standing, as it did,
about a mile and a half from any neighbours, caused them to exchange a
glance of hope. On a nearer view, the place was not without depressing
features. It stood in a marshy-looking hollow of a heath; tall trees
obscured its windows; the thatch visibly rotted on the rafters; and the
walls were stained with splashes of unwholesome green. The rooms were
small, the ceilings low, the furniture merely nominal; a strange chill
and a haunting smell of damp pervaded the kitchen; and the bedroom
boasted only of one bed.

Morris, with a view to cheapening the place, remarked on this defect.

'Well,' returned the man; 'if you can't sleep two abed, you'd better
take a villa residence.