hich Punch satirizes
the laws and moralities of the world, "kills the beadle and defies the
devil."

CHAPTER X.

KENELM turned from the sight of Punch and Punch's friend the cur, as his
servant, entering, said a person from the country, who would not give
his name, asked to see him.

Thinking it might be some message from his father, Kenelm ordered the
stranger to be admitted, and in another minute there entered a young man
of handsome countenance and powerful frame, in whom, after a surprised
stare, Kenelm recognized Tom Bowles. Difficult indeed would have been
that recognition to an unobservant beholder: no trace was left of the
sullen bully or the village farrier; the expression of the face was mild
and intelligent,--more bashful than hardy; the brute strength of the
form had lost its former clumsiness, the simple dress was that of a
gentleman,--to use an expressive idiom, the whole man was wonderfully
"toned down."

"I am afraid, sir, I am taking a liberty," said Tom, rather nervously,
twiddling his hat between his fingers.

"I should be a greater friend to liberty than I am if it were always
taken in the same way," said Kenelm, with a touch of his saturnine
humour; but then yielding at once to the warmer impulse of his nature,
he grasped his old antagonist's hand and exclaimed, "My dear Tom, you
are so welcome. I am so glad to see you. Sit down, man; sit down: make
yourself at home."

"I did not know you were back in England, sir, till within the last few
days; for you did say that when you came back I should see or hear from
you," and there was a tone of reproach in the last words.

"I am to blame, forgive me," said Kenelm, remorsefully. "But how did
you find me out? you did not then, I think, even know my name. That,
however, it was easy enough to discover; but who gave you my address in
this lodging?"

"Well, sir, it was Miss Travers; and she bade me come to you. Otherwise,
as you did not send for me, it was scarcely my place to call uninvited."

"But, my dear Tom, I never dreamed that you were in London. One don't
ask a man whom one supposes to be more than a hundred miles off to pay
one an afternoon call. You are still with your uncle, I presume? and I
need not ask if all thrives well with you: you look a prosperous man,
every inch of you, from crown to toe."

"Yes," said Tom; "thank you kindly, sir, I am doing well in the way of
business, and my uncle is to give me up the whole concern at Chr