ur or more, for there are
several things here that require explanation."

Mr. Jaggers turned pale, but he took off his coat and laid it along with
his hat on the great horsehair sofa at the other end of the room. Then
both he and his employer plunged into figures, till the chimes of a
distant clock sounded nine. "We must finish this the day after
to-morrow, Jaggers," said Mr. Dryce. "I won't keep you longer."

Mr. Jaggers put on his coat and hat, and bade his employer good-night,
and he had no sooner left the room than Mrs. Harris came in to fetch the
little one, for, as she said, "it was already past his bedtime."

Richard Dryce fell into his chair, and was as near having a fit as ever
he had been in his life.

"Good heaven! Mrs. Harris--you don't mean to say you haven't got the
boy. He's not here; run and see whether he has gone into Betsy's room;
she runs away with him sometimes."

"Mamma!" said a sleepy little voice under the sofa, and Mr. Dryce and
the nurse were both on their knees in a moment.

"The precious! why, if he hasn't been asleep all the time!" said Mr.
Dryce, kissing the warm rosy cheek; "take him off to bed directly, and
bring him down to breakfast in the morning."

Mrs. Harris only just escaped meeting Jaggers on the stairs, up which he
was coming, followed by Betty with a flaring tallow candle, and looking
carefully on every stair. "I beg your pardon, sir," he said, with a
scared look, as he opened the room door, "but have you seen my keys
anywhere? I must have dropped them somewhere in the room, I think."

"No," replied Mr. Dryce, "I've seen nothing--most extraordinary!" he
said to himself, thinking of the child and forgetting Jaggers.

"It is, sir, very extraordinary," said the clerk, groping on the floor
and patting the carpet with his hands. "I know I had them when I came up
here, and I can't open my desk where I keep my money."

"Oh! never mind, Jaggers," said Mr. Dryce sleepily. "Here are a couple
of sovereigns. If we find the keys, you can have them to-morrow; and if
not, we will have a new lock. Come, good night! I'll come down and bolt
the office door after you."

Jaggers entreated his employer not to take so much trouble, and delayed
so long that the old gentleman began to grow a little impatient. At last
he got rid of him by giving him permission to come early on the
following morning, when, if his keys were not discovered by the servant
in sweeping, he might pick the lock.