before the commencement of our story, he had actually lived in
Conduit Street,--working hard, however, to keep his residence a deep
secret from his customers at large. Now he was the proud possessor of
a villa residence at Hendon, two miles out in the country beyond the
Swiss Cottage; and all his customers knew that he was never to be
found before 9.30 A.M., or after 5.15 P.M.

As we have said, Mr. Neefit had his troubles, and one of his great
troubles was our young friend, Ralph Newton. Ralph Newton was a
hunting man, with a stud of horses,--never less than four, and
sometimes running up to seven and eight,--always standing at the
Moonbeam, at Barnfield. All men know that Barnfield is in the middle
of the B. B. Hunt,--the two initials standing for those two sporting
counties, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Now, Mr. Neefit had a very
large connexion in the B. B., and, though he never was on horseback
in his life, subscribed twenty-five pounds a year to the pack. Mr.
Ralph Newton had long favoured him with his custom; but, we are sorry
to say, Mr. Ralph Newton had become a thorn in the flesh to many a
tradesman in these days. It was not that he never paid. He did pay
something; but as he ordered more than he paid, the sum-total against
him was always an increasing figure. But then he was a most engaging,
civil-spoken young man, whose order it was almost impossible to
decline. It was known, moreover, that his prospects were so good!
Nevertheless, it is not pleasant for a breeches-maker to see the
second hundred pound accumulating on his books for leather breeches
for one gentleman. "What does he do with 'em?" old Neefit would
say to himself; but he didn't dare to ask any such question of
Mr. Newton. It isn't for a tradesman to complain that a gentleman
consumes too many of his articles. Things, however, went so far that
Mr. Neefit found it to be incumbent on him to make special inquiry
about those prospects. Things had gone very far indeed,--for Ralph
Newton appeared one summer evening at the villa at Hendon, and
absolutely asked the breeches-maker to lend him a hundred pounds!
Before he left he had taken tea with Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Neefit
on the lawn, and had received almost a promise that the loan should
be forthcoming if he would call in Conduit Street on the following
morning. That had been early in May, and Ralph Newton had called,
and, though there had been difficulties, he had received the money
before three da