n your handing the whole business over to me for a
week or two, just as it stands; if you don't I'll go back to Africa.
Why, you've no idea what a splendid shopman I shall make. You seem to
forget that I have been a successful diamond-merchant."

"I don't see the connection, Enoch," returned the other, with a faint
smile.

"That's because you've never been out of London, and can't believe in
anybody who hasn't been borne or at least bred, within the sound of Bow
Bells. Don't you know that diamond-merchants sometimes keep stores, and
that stores mean buying and selling, and corresponding, and all that
sort of thing? Come, dear Fred, trust me a little--only a little--for a
day or two, or rather, I should say, trust God, and try to sleep.
There's a dear fellow--come."

The sick man heaved a deep sigh, turned over on his side, and dropped
into a quiet slumber--whether under the influence of a more trustful
spirit or of exhaustion we cannot say--probably both.

Returning to the shop, Mr Blurt sat down in his old position on the
stool and began to meditate. He was interrupted by the entrance of a
woman carrying a stuffed pheasant. She pointed out that one of the
glass eyes of the creature had got broken, and wished to know what it
would cost to have a new one put in. Poor Mr Blurt had not the
faintest idea either as to the manufacture or cost of glass eyes. He
wished most fervently that the woman had gone to some other shop.
Becoming desperate, and being naturally irascible, as well as humorous,
he took a grimly facetious course.

"My good woman," he said, with a bland smile, "I would recommend you to
leave the bird as it is. A dead pheasant can see quite as well with one
eye as with two, I assure you."

"La! sir, but it don't look so well," said the woman.

"O yes, it does; quite as well, if you turn its blind side to the wall."

"But we keeps it on a table, sir, an' w'en our friends walk round the
table they can't 'elp seein' the broken eye."

"Well, then," persisted Mr Blurt, "don't let your friends walk round
the table. Shove the bird up against the wall; or tell your friends
that it's a humorous bird, an' takes to winking when they go to that
side."

The woman received this advice with a smile, but insisted nevertheless
that a "noo heye" would be preferable, and wanted to know the price.

"Well, you know," said Mr Blurt, "that depends on the size and
character of the eye, and the time required to in