at his hand again.

'Now, there's an Enquiry in York,' said Pancks. 'Who takes it?'

'I'm not good for York,' said Mr Rugg.

'Then perhaps,' pursued Pancks, 'you'll be so obliging, John Chivery?'
Young John assenting, Pancks dealt him his card, and consulted his hand
again.

'There's a Church in London; I may as well take that. And a Family
Bible; I may as well take that, too. That's two to me. Two to me,'
repeated Pancks, breathing hard over his cards. 'Here's a Clerk at
Durham for you, John, and an old seafaring gentleman at Dunstable for
you, Mr Rugg. Two to me, was it? Yes, two to me. Here's a Stone; three
to me. And a Still-born Baby; four to me. And all, for the present,
told.' When he had thus disposed of his cards, all being done very
quietly and in a suppressed tone, Mr Pancks puffed his way into his own
breast-pocket and tugged out a canvas bag; from which, with a sparing
hand, he told forth money for travelling expenses in two little
portions. 'Cash goes out fast,' he said anxiously, as he pushed a
portion to each of his male companions, 'very fast.'

'I can only assure you, Mr Pancks,' said Young John, 'that I deeply
regret my circumstances being such that I can't afford to pay my own
charges, or that it's not advisable to allow me the time necessary for
my doing the distances on foot; because nothing would give me greater
satisfaction than to walk myself off my legs without fee or reward.'

This young man's disinterestedness appeared so very ludicrous in
the eyes of Miss Rugg, that she was obliged to effect a precipitate
retirement from the company, and to sit upon the stairs until she had
had her laugh out. Meanwhile Mr Pancks, looking, not without some pity,
at Young John, slowly and thoughtfully twisted up his canvas bag as if
he were wringing its neck. The lady, returning as he restored it to his
pocket, mixed rum and water for the party, not forgetting her fair self,
and handed to every one his glass. When all were supplied, Mr Rugg rose,
and silently holding out his glass at arm's length above the centre of
the table, by that gesture invited the other three to add theirs, and to
unite in a general conspiratorial clink. The ceremony was effective up
to a certain point, and would have been wholly so throughout, if Miss
Rugg, as she raised her glass to her lips in completion of it, had not
happened to look at Young John; when she was again so overcome by the
contemptible comicality of his disintere