't a
brother;--but he had a dearer one still, and a nearer one yet, than
all other.--'To be or not to be; that is the question.'--He must in
ground unsanctified be lodged, till the last trumpet! Ah, there's the
rub! But for that, who would these fardels bear?" Then he made up his
mind that the fardels must still be borne, and again went home to his
lodgings.

This had occurred some little time before the opening of the house,
and on the next morning George Robinson was at his work as hard,--ay,
harder--than ever. He had pledged himself to the firm, and was aware
that it would ill become him to allow private sorrows to interfere
with public duties. On that morrow he was more enterprising than
ever, and it was then that he originated the idea of the four men in
armour, and of Fame with her classical horn and gilded car.

"She'll come round again, George," said Mr. Brown, "and then take her
at the hop."

"She'll hop no more for me," said George Robinson, sternly. But on
this matter he was weak as water, and this woman was able to turn him
round her little finger.

On the fourteenth of May, the day previous to the opening of the
house, Robinson was seated upstairs alone, still at work on some of
his large posters. There was no sound to be heard but the hammers of
the workmen below; and the smell of the magenta paint, as it dried,
was strong in his nostrils. It was then that one of the workmen came
up to him, saying that there was a gentleman below who wished to
see him. At this period Robinson was anxious to be called on by
commercial gentlemen, and at once sent down civil word, begging that
the gentleman would walk up. With heavy step the gentleman did walk
up, and William Brisket was shown into the room.

"Sir," said George Robinson as soon as he saw him, "I did not expect
this honour from you." And then he bethought himself of his desire to
tear out the monster's tongue, and began to consider whether he might
do it now.

"I don't know much about honour," said Brisket; "but it seems to me
an understandin's wanted 'twixt you and I."

"There can be none such," said Robinson.

"Oh, but there must."

"It is not within the compass of things. You, sir, cannot understand
me;--your intellectual vision is too limited. And I,--I will not
understand you."

"Won't you, by jingo! Then your vision shall be limited, as far as
two uncommon black eyes can limit it. But come, Robinson, if you
don't want to quarrel, I don't."