nd I might not have forgotten to relinquish
it to her at my death:' and sat looking at it.

'Shall I recall something to you, worthy madame?' said Rigaud. 'The
little paper was in this house on the night when our friend the
prisoner--jail-comrade of my soul--came home from foreign countries.
Shall I recall yet something more to you? The little singing-bird
that never was fledged, was long kept in a cage by a guardian of your
appointing, well enough known to our old intriguer here. Shall we coax
our old intriguer to tell us when he saw him last?'

'I'll tell you!' cried Affery, unstopping her mouth. 'I dreamed it,
first of all my dreams. Jeremiah, if you come a-nigh me now, I'll scream
to be heard at St Paul's! The person as this man has spoken of, was
jeremiah's own twin brother; and he was here in the dead of the night,
on the night when Arthur come home, and Jeremiah with his own hands give
him this paper, along with I don't know what more, and he took it away
in an iron box--Help! Murder! Save me from Jere-mi-ah!'

Mr Flintwinch had made a run at her, but Rigaud had caught him in his
arms midway. After a moment's wrestle with him, Flintwinch gave up, and
put his hands in his pockets.

'What!' cried Rigaud, rallying him as he poked and jerked him back with
his elbows, 'assault a lady with such a genius for dreaming! Ha, ha, ha!
Why, she'll be a fortune to you as an exhibition. All that she dreams
comes true. Ha, ha, ha! You're so like him, Little Flintwinch. So like
him, as I knew him (when I first spoke English for him to the host) in
the Cabaret of the Three Billiard Tables, in the little street of the
high roofs, by the wharf at Antwerp! Ah, but he was a brave boy to
drink. Ah, but he was a brave boy to smoke! Ah, but he lived in a sweet
bachelor-apartment--furnished, on the fifth floor, above the wood and
charcoal merchant's, and the dress-maker's, and the chair-maker's, and
the maker of tubs--where I knew him too, and wherewith his cognac and
tobacco, he had twelve sleeps a day and one fit, until he had a fit too
much, and ascended to the skies. Ha, ha, ha! What does it matter how I
took possession of the papers in his iron box? Perhaps he confided it
to my hands for you, perhaps it was locked and my curiosity was piqued,
perhaps I suppressed it. Ha, ha, ha! What does it matter, so that I
have it safe? We are not particular here; hey, Flintwinch? We are not
particular here; is it not so, madame?'

Retiring b