nedly sonorous.

"You may say in return, sir, that the sum named will remunerate me."

At the same time the instinct was intense to seize the youth by the
throat, and tell him that if the remittance was delayed beyond the
morning, I would have his heart's-blood! I should have liked to thrust
him into the coal-hole as a hostage for its prompt arrival, or send one
of his ears to the publishing house with a warning, after the manner of
the Neapolitan brigands.

That afternoon I walked all the way to Edmonton, over John Gilpin's
route, and boldly invested two-pence in beer at the time-honored Bell
Inn. I disdained to ride back upon the omnibus for the sum of
threepence, but returned on foot the entire eight miles, and thought it
only a league. Next day my check came duly to hand,--a very formidable
check, with two pen-marks drawn across its face. I carried it to
Threadneedle Street by the unfrequented routes, to avoid having my
pockets picked, and presented it to the cashier, wondering if he knew me
to be a foreign gentleman who had written for the _Cornhill Magazine_.
The cashier looked rather contemptuous, I thought, being evidently a
soulless character with no literary affinities.

"Sir," he said, curtly, "this check is crossed."

"Sir!"

"We can't cash the check; it is crossed."

"What do you mean by crossed?"

"Just present it where you got it, and you will find out."

The cashier regarded me as if I had offered a ticket of leave rather
than an order for the considerable amount of seventy-five dollars. I
left that banking-house a broken man, and stopped with a long, long face
at a broker's to ask for an explanation.

"Yesh, yesh," said the little man, whose German silver spectacles sat
upon a bulbously Oriental nose; "ze monish ish never paid on a crossed
shequc. If one hash a bank-account, you know, zat ish different. Ze
gentleman who gif you dis shequc had no bishness to crosh it if you have
no banker."

I was too vain to go back to Cornhill and confess that I had neither
purse nor purser; so I satisfied the broker that the affair was correct,
and he cashed the bill for five shillings.

That was the end of my necessities; money came from home, from this and
that serial; my published articles were favorably noticed, and opened
the market to me. Whatever I penned found sale; and some correspondence
that I had leisure to fulfil for America brought me steady receipts.

Had I been prudent with my means, an