Are you going to spend the night here?"

"It's nice and warm to-night," replied the aged butler. "I said to the
man at that low place I said: 'Don't you ever speak to me again,' I
said, 'don't you come near me!' Straightforward and honest 's been
my motto all my life; I don't want to have nothing to say to them low
fellows"--he made an annihilating gesture--"after the way they treated
me, takin' my things like that. Tomorrow I shall get a room for three
shillin's a week, don't you think so, sir? Well, then I shall be all
right. I 'm not afraid now; the mind at rest. So long as I ran keep
myself, that's all I want. I shall do first-rate, I think"; and he
stared at Shelton, but the look in his eyes and the half-scared optimism
of his voice convinced the latter that he lived in dread. "So long as I
can keep myself," he said again, "I sha'n't need no workhouse nor lose
respectability."

"No," thought Shelton; and for some time sat without a word. "When you
can;" he said at last, "come and see me; here's my card."

The aged butler became conscious with a jerk, for he was nodding.

"Thank ye, sir; I will," he said, with pitiful alacrity. "Down by
Belgravia? Oh, I know it well; I lived down in them parts with a
gentleman of the name of Bateson--perhaps you knew him; he 's dead
now--the Honourable Bateson. Thank ye, sir; I'll be sure to come"; and,
snatching at his battered hat, he toilsomely secreted Shelton's card
amongst his character. A minute later he began again to nod.

The policeman passed a second time; his gaze seemed to say, "Now, what's
a toff doing on that seat with those two rotters?" And Shelton caught
his eye.

"Ah!" he thought; "exactly! You don't know what to make of me--a man of
my position sitting here! Poor devil! to spend your days in spying on
your fellow-creatures! Poor devil! But you don't know that you 're a
poor devil, and so you 're not one."

The man on the next bench sneezed--a shrill and disapproving sneeze.

The policeman passed again, and, seeing that the lower creatures were
both dozing, he spoke to Shelton:

"Not very safe on these 'ere benches, sir," he said; "you never know
who you may be sittin' next to. If I were you, sir, I should be gettin'
on--if you 're not goin' to spend the night here, that is"; and he
laughed, as at an admirable joke.

Shelton looked at him, and itched to say, "Why shouldn't I?" but it
struck him that it would sound very odd. "Besides," he thought, "I sha