ave to take him down yonder with me.'

'Better do so,' assented Daniel, without much attention to the matter.

'What is it you want to talk about, Dan?'

Mr. Dabbs had a few minutes ago performed the customary evening
cleansing of his hands and face, but it had seemed unnecessary to brush
his hair, which consequently stood upright upon his forehead, a wiry
rampart, just as it had been thrust by the vigorously-applied towel.
This, combined with an unwonted lugubriousness of visage, made Daniel's
aspect somewhat comical. He kept stirring very deliberately with his
sugar-crusher.

'Why, it's this, Dick,' he began at length. 'And understand, to begin
with, that I've got no complaint to make of nobody; it's only _things_
as are awk'ard. It's this way, my boy. When you fust of all come and
told me about what I may call the great transformation scene, you said,
"Now it ain't a-goin' to make no difference, Dan," you said. Now wait
till I've finished; I ain't complainin' of nobody. Well, and I tried to
'ope as it wouldn't make no difference, though I 'ad my doubts. "Come
an' see us all just as usu'l," you said. Well, I tried to do so, and
three or four weeks I come reg'lar, lookin' in of a Sunday night. But
somehow it wouldn't work; something 'ad got out of gear. So I stopped it
off. Then comes 'Arry a-askin' why I made myself scarce, sayin' as th'
old lady and the Princess missed me. So I looked in again; but it was
wuss than before, I saw I'd done better to stay away. So I've done ever
since. Y' understand me, Dick?'

Richard was not entirely at his ease in listening. He tried to smile,
but failed to smile naturally.

'I don't see what you found wrong,' he returned, abruptly.

'Why, I'm a-tellin' you, my boy, I didn't find nothing wrong except in
myself, as you may say. What's the good o' beatin' about the bush? It's
just this 'ere, Dick, my lad. When I come to the Square, you know very
well who it was as I come to see. Well, it stands to reason as I can't
go to the new 'ouse with the same thoughts as I did to the old. Mind,
I can't say as she'd ever a' listened to me; it's more than likely she
wouldn't But now that's all over, and the sooner I forget all about
it the better for me. And th' only way to forget is to keep myself to
myself,--see, Dick?'

The listener drummed with his fingers on the table, still endeavouring
to smile.

'I've thought about all this, Dan,' he said at length, with an air of
extreme frankne