and I'm hanged if I don't take the law with every
one connected with it. I'll make an example of that fellow Hasherton,
and the whole body of the committee."

"Just as you like," replied the imperturbable Cutts. "You're a lawyer,
and the best judge of those sort of things. I may, however, as well
inform you that Hasherton went into the Gazette last week, and that you
won't find another member of the committee at this moment within the
four seas of Great Britain."

"And pray, may I ask how _you_ came to be connected with so
discreditable a project? Do you know that it is enough to blast your own
reputation for ever?"

"I know nothing of the kind," said the Saxon, commencing another cigar.
"I look to the matter of employment, and have nothing to do with the
character of my clients, beyond ascertaining their means of liquidating
my account. The committee required the assistance of a first-rate
engineer, and I flatter myself they could hardly have made a more
unexceptionable selection. But what's the use of looking sulky about it?
You can't help yourself; and, after all, what's the amount of your loss?
A parcel of pound-notes that would have lain rotting in the bank had you
not put them into circulation! Cheer up, Fred, you've made at least one
individual very happy. Glanders is going it in New York. I shouldn't be
surprised if half your deposit money is already invested in
mint-juleps."

"It is very easy for you to talk, Mr Cutts," said I, with considerable
acrimony. "Your account, at all events, appears to have been paid.
Doubtless you looked sharply after that. I cannot help putting my own
construction upon the conduct of a gentleman who makes a direct profit
out of the misfortunes of his friends."

"You affect me deeply," said Cutts, applying himself diligently to the
decanter; "but you don't drink. Do you know you put me a good deal in
mind of Macready? Did you ever hear him in Lear,

'How sharper than a serpent's thanks it is
To have a toothless child?'"

You're remarkably unjust, Fred, as you will acknowledge in your cooler
moments. I am hurt by your ingratitude--I am," and the sympathizing
engineer buried his face in the folds of a Bandana handkerchief.

I knew, by old experience, that it was of no use to get into a rage with
Cutts. After all, I had no tenable ground of complaint against him; for
the payment of the deposit money was my own deliberate act, and it was
no fault of his that the shares were