rs Meagles to make
the experiment of a personal interview. That worthy lady being unable to
obtain one, and being steadfastly denied admission, Mr Meagles besought
Arthur to essay once more what he could do. All that came of his
compliance was, his discovery that the empty house was left in charge
of the old woman, that Miss Wade was gone, that the waifs and strays of
furniture were gone, and that the old woman would accept any number of
half-crowns and thank the donor kindly, but had no information whatever
to exchange for those coins, beyond constantly offering for perusal a
memorandum relative to fixtures, which the house-agent's young man had
left in the hall.

Unwilling, even under this discomfiture, to resign the ingrate and leave
her hopeless, in case of her better dispositions obtaining the mastery
over the darker side of her character, Mr Meagles, for six successive
days, published a discreetly covert advertisement in the morning papers,
to the effect that if a certain young person who had lately left
home without reflection, would at any time apply to his address at
Twickenham, everything would be as it had been before, and no reproaches
need be apprehended. The unexpected consequences of this notification
suggested to the dismayed Mr Meagles for the first time that some
hundreds of young persons must be leaving their homes without reflection
every day; for shoals of wrong young people came down to Twickenham,
who, not finding themselves received with enthusiasm, generally demanded
compensation by way of damages, in addition to coach-hire there and
back. Nor were these the only uninvited clients whom the advertisement
produced. The swarm of begging-letter writers, who would seem to be
always watching eagerly for any hook, however small, to hang a letter
upon, wrote to say that having seen the advertisement, they were induced
to apply with confidence for various sums, ranging from ten shillings to
fifty pounds: not because they knew anything about the young person,
but because they felt that to part with those donations would greatly
relieve the advertiser's mind. Several projectors, likewise, availed
themselves of the same opportunity to correspond with Mr Meagles; as,
for example, to apprise him that their attention having been called to
the advertisement by a friend, they begged to state that if they should
ever hear anything of the young person, they would not fail to make it
known to him immediately, and t