ted: every one seemed oblivious of
his presence, and absolutely regardless of his wish. In truth, the
texture of that salmon-coloured skin could be seen to be aristocratic
without a microscope, and the exceptious artizan has an offhand way when
contrasts are made painfully strong by an idler of this kind coming,
gloved and brushed, into the very den where he is sweating and muddling
in his shirt-sleeves.

The gentleman from the carriage then proceeded down the workshop, wading
up to his knees in a sea of shavings, and bruising his ankles against
corners of board and sawn-off blocks, that lay hidden like reefs beneath.
At the ninth bench he made another venture.

'Sol Chickerel?' said the man addressed, as he touched his plane-iron
upon the oilstone. 'He's one of them just behind.'

'Damn it all, can't one of you show me?' the visitor angrily observed,
for he had been used to more attention than this. 'Here, point him out.'
He handed the man a shilling.

'No trouble to do that,' said the workman; and he turned and signified
Sol by a nod without moving from his place.

The stranger entered Sol's division, and, nailing him with his eye, said
at once: 'I want to speak a few words with you in private. Is not a Mrs.
Petherwin your sister?'

Sol started suspiciously. 'Has anything happened to her?' he at length
said hurriedly.

'O no. It is on a business matter that I have called. You need not mind
owning the relationship to me--the secret will be kept. I am the brother
of one whom you may have heard of from her--Lord Mountclere.'

'I have not. But if you will wait a minute, sir--' He went to a little
glazed box at the end of the shop, where the foreman was sitting, and,
after speaking a few words to this person, Sol led Mountclere to the
door, and down the ladder.

'I suppose we cannot very well talk here, after all?' said the gentleman,
when they reached the yard, and found several men moving about therein.

'Perhaps we had better go to some room--the nearest inn will answer the
purpose, won't it?'

'Excellently.'

'There's the "Green Bushes" over the way. They have a very nice private
room upstairs.'

'Yes, that will do.' And passing out of the yard, the man with the
glance entered the inn with Sol, where they were shown to the parlour as
requested.

While the waiter was gone for some wine, which Mountclere ordered, the
more ingenuous of the two resumed the conversation by saying, awkwardly:
'