e cards
fell from his hands with wondrous rapidity. "Now, if no one is inclined
to play, let 's have a broiled bone," said he, rising, and bowing
courteously around him.

"Second the motion!" cried a cheery voice, as the door opened and
Annesley Beecher entered. "Why, Grog, my hearty, I thought you had a
regular flock of pigeons here. I heard you talking as I came up the
stairs, and fancied you were doing a smart stroke of work."

"What robbery have _you_ been at with that white choker and that
gimcrack waistcoat?" said Davis, sulkily.

"Dining with Dunn, and a capital dinner he gave me. I 'm puzzled to say
whether I like his wine or his cookery best."

"Were there many there?"

"None but ourselves."

"Lord! how he must have worked you!" cried Davis, with an insolent grin.

"Ain't such a flat as you think me, Master Grog. Solomon was a wise man,
and Samson a strong one, and A. B. can hold his own with most 'in the
ruck.'"

A most contemptuous look was the only answer Davis condescended to this
speech. At last, after he had lighted a fresh cigar, and puffed it into
full work, he said, "Well, what was it he had to say to you?"

"Oh, we talked away of everything; and, by Jupiter! he knows a little of
everything. Such a memory, too; remembers every fellow that was in power
the last fifty years, and can tell you how he was 'squared,' for it 's
all on the 'cross' with _them_, Grog, just as in the ring. Every fellow
rides to order, and half the running one sees is no race! Any hot water
to be had?"

"No, there's cold in that jug yonder. Well, go on with Dunn."

"He is very agreeable, I must say; for, besides having met everybody, he
knows all their secret history,--how this one got out of his scrape,
and why that went into the hole. You see in a moment how much he must
be trusted, and that he can make his book on life as safe as the Bank of
England. Fearfully strong that gin is!"

"No, it ain't," said Grog, rudely; "it's not the velvety tipple Dunn
gave you, but it's good British gin, that's what it is."

"You would n't believe, too, how much he knows about women! He's up to
everything that's going on in town. Very strange that, for a fellow like
him! Don't you think so?"

Davis made no answer, but puffed away slowly. "And after women, what
came next?"

"He talked next--let me see--about books. How he likes Becky Sharp,--how
he enjoys her! He says that character will do the same service as the
published dis