hed to have a word of conversation with him.

"Conv'shas'n wi' me?" said Ned, swaying himself to and fro as he
endeavoured to look steadily in the face of his friend; "fire away,
shen. I'm sh' man f'r conv'shash'n, grave or gay, comic--'r--shublime,
's all the shame to me!"

He finished the pot, and laid it, with an immense assumption of care, on
the counter.

"Come out, we'll walk as we talk," said Gorman.

"Ha! to b'shure; 'at's poetical--very good, very good, we'll wa-alk as
we talk--ha! ha! very good. Didn't know you wash a poet--eh? don't look
like 'un."

"Come along, then," said Gorman, taking him by the arm.

"Shtop!" said Ned, drawing himself up with an air of drivelling dignity,
and thrusting his hand into his trouser-pocket.

"What for?" asked the other.

"I haven't p-paid for my b-beer."

"Never mind the beer. I'll stand that," said Gorman, dragging his
friend away.

Ned consented to be dragged, and said something to the effect that he
hoped to have the pleasure of standing treat on some future occasion.

"Now, then," said Gorman, somewhat firmly, though not sternly, for he
knew that Ned Hooper was not to be browbeat; "are you sober enough to
attend to what I've got to say?"

"Shober as a dudge," answered Ned.

Gorman looked earnestly in his face for a few moments, and then began to
talk to him in a continuous strain by way of testing him.

"C'found these cabs an' b-busseses; a feller c-can't hear a word," said
Ned.

"Your lodgin's an't far off, are they?"

"Close 't 'and," answered Ned.

"Let's go to 'em," said Gorman.

In silence Ned Hooper led the way, and, conducting his friend into his
"chamber," as he styled his poor abode, begged him to be seated, and
threw himself into an armchair beside the little fire. There was a pipe
on the chimney-piece, which Ned began to fill, while Gorman opened the
conversation.

"You're hard up, rather, just now?" said the latter.

"'Xactly so, that's my c'ndition to a tee."

Ned smiled as he said this, as though it were the most satisfactory
state of things possible, and lighted his pipe.

"Of course you've no objection to make a fifty pound note or so?" asked
Gorman.

"None in sh' wo'ld; always," he became very earnest here, "_always_
sh'posin' that I make it honestly."

"Of course, of course," rejoined the other; "I would never propose
anything that would lead you into a scrape. You don't suppose I would
do that, I hope?"

"Shertenl