to you, I suppose, what I
may intend to do by Mr. Frank Fairlegh! I may be his grandfather for
anything you can tell to the contrary; and I may choose to cut him off
with a shilling, I imagine, without its affecting you in any way--umph?"

"Scarcely so, Mr. Frampton," replied I, turning away to hide an
irrepressible smile, "if it is in consequence of what I have told you
that you are angry with poor Frank."

"Angry, sir, angry"--was the answer--"I'm never angry--there's nothing
worth being angry about in this world. Do you take snuff, sir? I've some
that came from--Umph! eh!" he continued, fumbling in all his
pockets--"hope I haven't lost my box--given me by the Begum of
Cuddleakee--splendid woman--only complexion too strong of the
tawny--Umph! left it in the other room, I suppose--back in a moment,
sir--Umph! umph!" and, suiting the action to the word, he went out,
slamming the door behind him.

As the reader may suppose, I was equally surprised and pleased to find
that my old friend not only remembered our former intimacy, but felt so
warm an interest in my welfare as to have put himself quite in a rage on
hearing of my supposed delinquencies. Although it had been the means of
eliciting such strong indications of his continued regard for me, I felt
half sorry for the deception I had practised upon him--the only thing
that could be done now, however, was to make myself known to him without
delay, and his absence from the room enabled me to put in practice a
plan for doing so which I had had in my mind all along. Accordingly,
going up to the chimney-glass I shook my hair forward, so that it fell
in waving curls about my face and forehead--took the stiffener out of my
neckcloth and, knotting the latter closely round my throat, turned down
my shirt-collar, so as to resemble as nearly as possible the Byron-tie
of my boyhood--then unbuttoning and throwing open my coat I resumed my
seat, arranging the candles so as to throw the light full upon my face
as I did so. I had scarcely completed my arrangements when I heard
Mr. Frampton's footstep in ~241~~the passage, and in another moment he
entered the room. "All right, Mr. Lee, all right, sir; I found the box
in my other coat-pocket; I was afraid the thieves might have forestalled
me; but--Umph!--eh!--why?--who?" Catching sight of me as he spoke, he
stopped short, and, shading his eyes with his hand, gazed earnestly at
me, with a look half-bewildered, half-incredulous. Takin