as I advanced.

"Well," cried one, "who are you? Nobody sent for you."

"Tramp, my smart fellow," said the other; "this an't your shop."

"Is n't this Killeen's?" said I, stoutly.

"Just so," said the first, a little surprised at my coolness.

"Well, then, a young gentleman from the college sent me to order dinner
for him at once, and pay for it at the same time."

"What will he have?"

"Soup, and a steak, with a pint of port," said I; just the kind of
dinner I had often heard the old half-pay officers talking of at the
door of the Club in Foster Place.

"What hour did he say?"

"This instant. He's coming down; and as he starts by the mail at seven,
he told me to have it on the table when he came."

"All right; four-and-six," said the waiter, holding out his hand for the
money.

I gave him my crown piece; and as he fumbled for the sixpence I
insinuated myself quietly into the hall.

"There's your change, boy," said the waiter; "you need n't stop."

"Will you be so good, sir," said I, "to write 'paid' on a slip of paper
for me, just to show the gentleman?"

"Of course," said he, taken possibly by the flattering civility of my
address; and he stepped into the bar, and soon reappeared with a small
scrap of paper, with these words: "Dinner and a pint of port, 's.
6d.--paid."

"I'm to wait for him here, sir," said I, most obsequiously.

"Very well, so you can," replied he, passing on to the coffee-room.

I peeped through the glass door, and saw that in one of the little
boxes into which the place was divided, a table was just spread, and a
soup-tureen and a decanter placed on it. "This," thought I, "is for
me;" for all the other boxes were already occupied, and a great buzz of
voices and clashing of plates and knives going on together.

"Serve the steak, sir," said I, stepping into the room and addressing
the head-waiter, who, with a curse to me to "get out of that," passed
on to order the dish; while I, with an adroit flank movement, dived into
the box, and, imitating some of the company, spread my napkin like a
breastplate across me. By a great piece of fortune the stall was the
darkest in the room, so that when seated in a corner, with an open
newspaper before me, I could, for a time at least, hope to escape
detection.

"Anything else, sir?" cried a waiter, as he uncovered the soup, and
deposited the dish of smoking beef-steak.

"Nothing," responded I, with a voice of most imposing sternness, and