so with the
object of buying his partner's interest. This he might have done at
once,--only that he suffered under the privation of an insufficiency
of means. He was a man of great intelligence, and knew well that no
readier mode to wealth had ever presented itself to him than the
purchase of his partner's shares. Much was said to persuade John
Gordon; but he would not part with his documents without seeing
security for his money. Therefore Messrs. Gordon and Tookey put the
old Stick-in-the-Mud into the hands of competent lawyers, and came
home together.

"I am not at all sure that I shall sell," John Gordon had said.

"But I thought that you offered it."

"Yes; for money down. For the sum named I will sell now. But if I
start from here without completing the bargain, I shall keep the
option in my own hands. The fact is, I do not know whether I shall
remain in England or return. If I do come back I am not likely to
find anything better than the old Stick-in-the-Mud." To this Mr
Tookey assented, but still he resolved that he would go home. Hence
it came to pass that Mr Fitzwalker Tookey was now in London, and
that John Gordon had to see him frequently. Here Tookey had found
another would-be partner, who had the needed money, and it was
fervently desired by Mr Tookey that John Gordon might not go back to
South Africa.

The two men were not at all like in their proclivities; but they had
been thrown together, and each had learned much of the inside life of
the other. The sort of acquaintance with whom a steady man becomes
intimate in such a locality often surprises the steady man himself.
Fitzwalker Tookey had the antecedents and education of a gentleman.
Champagne and lobster suppers--the lobster coming out of tin
cases,--diamonds and strange ladies, even with bloated cheeks and
strong language, had not altogether destroyed the vestiges of the
Temple. He at any rate was fond of a companion with whom he could
discuss his English regrets, and John Gordon was not inclined to shut
himself up altogether among his precious stones, and to refuse the
conversation of a man who could talk. Tookey had told him of his
great distress in reference to his wife. "By G----! you know, the
cruellest thing you ever heard in the world. I was a little tight one
night, and the next morning she was off with Atkinson, who got away
with his pocket full of diamonds. Poor girl! she went down to the
Portuguese settlement, and he was nabbed. He