y be
successful if he urged his love at the present moment. "Strike while
the iron is hot," she said, alluding probably to the heat to which
Clara's anger would be warmed by the feeling that the other lover
had lost his situation just when he was most bound to be careful in
maintaining it.

Tribbledale went in and pleaded his case. It is probable that just
at this time Clara herself was made acquainted with Tribbledale's
frequent visits to The Duchess, and though she may not have been
pleased with the special rendezvous selected, she was gratified by
the devotion shown. When Mrs. Grimley advised Tribbledale to "go in
and win," she was, perhaps, in Clara's confidence. When a girl has
told all her friends that she is going to be married, and has already
expended a considerable portion of the sum of money allowed for her
wedding garments, she cannot sink back into the simple position of
an unengaged young woman without pangs of conscience and qualms of
remorse. Paradise Row knew that her young man was to be dismissed
from his office, and condoled with her frequently and most
unpleasantly. Mrs. Duffer was so unbearable in the matter that the
two ladies had quarrelled dreadfully. Clara from the first moment of
her engagement with Crocker had been proud of the second string to
her bow, and now perceived that the time had come in which it might
be conveniently used.

It was near eleven when Tribbledale knocked at the door of No. 10,
but nevertheless Clara was up, as was also the servant girl, who
opened the door for the sake of discretion. "Oh, Daniel, what hours
you do keep!" said Clara, when the young gentleman was shown into the
parlour. "What on earth brings you here at such a time as this?"

Tribbledale was never slow to declare that he was brought thither by
the overwhelming ardour of his passion. His love for Clara was so
old a story, and had been told so often, that the repeating of it
required no circumlocution. Had he chanced to meet her in the High
Street on a Sunday morning, he would have begun with it at once.
"Clara," he said, "will you have me? I know that that other scoundrel
is a ruined man."

"Oh, Daniel, you shouldn't hit those as are down."

"Hasn't he been hitting me all the time that I was down? Hasn't he
triumphed? Haven't you been in his arms?"

"Laws; no."

"And wasn't that hitting me when I was down, do you think?"

"It never did you any harm."

"Oh, Clara;--if you knew the nature of my l