n's office below, where Harry at
Pawson's request had gone to meet Gadgem and talk over certain plans for
his uncle's future welfare. He had missed Kate by one of those trifling
accidents which often determine the destiny of nations and of men. Had
he, after attending to the business of the morning--(he had been down to
Marsh Market with Todd for supplies)--mounted the steps to see his uncle
instead of yielding to a sudden impulse to interview Pawson first and
his uncle afterward, he would have come upon Kate at the very moment she
was pouring out her heart to St. George.

But no such fatality or stroke of good fortune--whatever the gods had in
store for him--took place. On the contrary he proceeded calmly to
carry out the details of a matter of the utmost importance to all
concerned--one in which both Pawson and Gadgem were interested--(indeed
he had come at Pawson's suggestion to discuss its details with the
collector and himself):--all of which the Scribe promises in all honor
to reveal to his readers before the whole of this story is told.

Harry walked straight up to Gadgem:

"I am very glad to see you, Mr. Gadgem," he said in his manly, friendly
way. "You have been very good to my uncle, and I want to thank you both
for him and for myself," and he shook the little man's hand heartily.

Gadgem blushed. St. George's democracy he could understand; but why this
aristocrat--outcast as he had once been, but now again in favor--why
this young prince, the heir to Moorlands and the first young blood of
his time, should treat him as an equal, puzzled him; and yet, somehow,
his heart warmed to him as he read his sincerity in his eyes and voice.

"Thank you, sir--thank you very much, sir," rejoined Gadgem, with a
folding-camp-stool-movement, his back bent at right angles with his
legs. "I really don't deserve it, sir. Mr. Temple is an EXtraordinary
man, sir; the most EXtraordinary man I have ever met, sir. Give you the
shirt off his back, sir, and go NAked himself."

"Yes, he gave it to me," laughed Harry, greatly amused at the
collector's effusive manner: He had never seen this side of Gadgem.
"That, of course, you know all about--you paid the bills, I believe."

"PREcisely so, sir." He had lengthened out now with a spiral-spring,
cork-screw twist in his body, his index finger serving as point. "Paid
every one of them. He never cared, sir--he GLOried in it--GLOried in
being a pauper. UNaccountable, Mr. Rutter--Enormous