ng too
old for quarrelling. Got any engagement this afternoon?"

"I thought of looking in to see a friend here in the street"

"Male or female?"

"Both; man and wife."

"Oh, then you have got some friends? So had I when I was your age. They
go somehow when you get old. Your father was the last of them, I think.
But you're not much like him, except a little in face. True, he was a
Radical, but you,--well, I don't know what you are. If you'd been a son
of mine, I'd have had you ill Parliament by now, somehow or other."

"I think you never had a son?" said Way mark, observing the note of
melancholy which every now and then came up in the old man's talk.

"No."

"But you had some children, I think?"

"Yes, yes,--they're dead."

He had walked to the window, and suddenly turned round with a kind of
impatience.

"Never mind the friend to-day; come and have some dinner with me. I
seem to want a bit of company."

This was the first invitation of the kind Waymark had received. He
accepted it, and they went out together.

"It's a pleasant part this," Mr. Woodstock said, as they walked by the
river. "One might build himself a decent house somewhere about here,
eh?"

"Do you think of doing so?"

"I think of doing so! What's the good of a house, and nobody to live in
it?"

Waymark studied these various traits of the old man's humour, and
constantly felt more of kindness towards him.

On the following day, just as he had collected his rents, and was on
his way out of Litany Lane, Waymark was surprised at coming face to
face with Mrs. Casti; yet more surprised when he perceived that she had
come out from a public-house. She looked embarrassed, and for a moment
seemed about to pass without recognising him; but he had raised his
hat, and she could not but move her head in reply. She so obviously
wished to avoid speaking, that he walked quickly on in another
direction. He wondered what he could be doing in such a place as this.
It could hardly be that she had acquaintances or connections here.
Julian had not given him any particulars of Harriet's former life, and
his friend's marriage was still a great puzzle to him. He knew well
that the girl had no liking for himself; it was not improbable that
this casual meeting would make their intercourse yet more strained. He
thought for a moment of questioning Julian, but decided that the matter
was no business of his.

It was so rare for him to meet an acquaintance in the