e a serpent; whereupon she vanished
incontinently, after the manner of serpents, with the house and
furniture."

"Haven't you missed out a lot, sir?" inquired Leander, deferentially;
"because it don't seem to me to hook on quite. What became of Venus and
the ring?"

"How the dickens am I to tell you, if you will interrupt? Ring! _What_
ring? Why, yes; the magician gave the young man a certain letter, and
told him to go to a particular cross-road outside the city, at dead of
night, and wait for Saturn to pass by in procession, with his fallen
associates. This he did, and presented the magician's letter; which
Saturn, after having read, called Venus to him, who was riding in front,
and commanded her to deliver up the ring."

Here he stopped, as if he had nothing to add.

"And did she, sir?" asked Leander, breathlessly.

"Did she what? give up the ring? Of course she did. Haven't I been
saying so? Why not?"

"Well," observed Leander, "so that's how _he_ got out of it, was it?
Hah! he was a lucky chap. Those were the days when magicians did a good
trade, I suppose? Should you say there were any such parties now, on the
quiet like, eh, sir?"

"Bah! Magic is a lost art, degraded to dark seances and juvenile
parties--the last magician dead for more than two hundred years. Don't
expose your ignorance, sir, by any more such questions."

"No," said Leander; "I thought as much. And so, if any one was to get
into such a fix nowadays--of course, that's only my talk, but if they
did--there ain't a practising magician anywhere to help him out of it.
That's your opinion, ain't it, sir?"

"As the danger of such a contingency is not immediate," was the reply,
"the want of a remedy need not, in my humble opinion, cause you any
grave uneasiness."

"No," agreed Leander, dejectedly. "I don't care, of course. I was only
thinking that, in case--but there, it's no odds! Well, Mr. Freemoult,
you've told me what I was curious to know, and here's your little
honnyrarium, sir--two shillings and two sixpences, making three
shillings in all, pre-cisely."

"Keep your money, sir," said the old man, with contemptuous good humour.
"My working hours are done for the day, and you're welcome enough to any
instruction you're capable of receiving from my remarks. It's not saying
much, I dare say."

"Oh, you told it very clear, considering, sir, I'm sure! I don't grudge
it."

"Keep it, I tell you, and say no more about it."

So, expressing