ng
that can be learnt, and I'll be perfect in it in a quarter the time it
would take the average man."

"You want your evenings free?" asked the other, after a short
reflection. "What will you do with them?"

"I shall give them to literary work."

"I thought as much. And you think you can be a man of business and a
poet at the same time? No go, my boy. If you take up business, you drop
poetising. Those two horses never yet pulled at the same shaft, and
never will."

Mr. Woodstock pondered for a few moments. He thrust out his great legs
with feet crossed on the fender, and with his hands jingled coin in his
trouser-pockets.

"I tell you what," he suddenly began. "There's only one thing I know of
at present that you're likely to be able to do. Suppose I gave you the
job of collecting my rents down east."

"Weekly rents?"

"Weekly. It's a rough quarter, and they're a shady lot of customers.
You wouldn't find the job over-pleasant, but you might try, eh?"

"What would it bring me in,--to go at once to the point?"

"The rents average twenty-five pounds. Your commission would be seven
per cent. You might reckon, I dare say, on five-and-thirty shillings a
week."

"What is the day for collecting?"

"Mondays; but there's lots of 'em you'd have to look up several times
in a week. If you like I'll go round myself on Tuesday--Easter Monday's
no good--and you can come with me."

"I will go, by all means," exclaimed Waymark

Talk continued for some half-hour. When Waymark rose at length, he
expressed his gratitude for the assistance promised.

"Well, well," said the other, "wait till we see how things work. I
shouldn't wonder if you throw it up after a week or two. However, be
here on Tuesday at ten. And prompt, mind: I don't wait for any man."

Waymark was punctual enough on the following Tuesday, and the two drove
in a hansom eastward. It was rather a foggy morning, and things looked
their worst. After alighting they had a short walk. Mr. Woodstock
stopped at the end of an alley.

"You see," he said, "that's Litany Lane. There are sixteen houses in
it, and they're all mine. Half way down, on the left, runs off Elm
Court, where there are fourteen houses, and those are all mine, too."

Waymark looked. Litany Lane was a narrow passage, with houses only on
one side; opposite to them ran a long high wall, apparently the limit
of some manufactory. Two posts set up at the entrance to the Lane
showed that it was no t