ut way, that you had left your situation with Mr Pecksniff.
Was that the fact? Yes, it was. Did you want another? Yes, you did.'

'Certainly,' said Tom, nodding his head.

'Just what I impressed upon him. You may rest assured that I set that
point beyond the possibility of any mistake, and gave him distinctly to
understand that he might make up his mind about it. Very well.'

"Then," said he, "I think I can accommodate him."'

Tom's sister stopped short.

'Lord bless me!' cried Tom. 'Ruth, my dear, "think I can accommodate
him."'

'Of course I begged him,' pursued John Westlock, glancing at Tom's
sister, who was not less eager in her interest than Tom himself, 'to
proceed, and said that I would undertake to see you immediately. He
replied that he had very little to say, being a man of few words,
but such as it was, it was to the purpose--and so, indeed, it turned
out--for he immediately went on to tell me that a friend of his was in
want of a kind of secretary and librarian; and that although the salary
was small, being only a hundred pounds a year, with neither board
nor lodging, still the duties were not heavy, and there the post was.
Vacant, and ready for your acceptance.'

'Good gracious me!' cried Tom; 'a hundred pounds a year! My dear John!
Ruth, my love! A hundred pounds a year!'

'But the strangest part of the story,' resumed John Westlock, laying his
hand on Tom's wrist, to bespeak his attention, and repress his ecstasies
for the moment; 'the strangest part of the story, Miss Pinch, is this. I
don't know this man from Adam; neither does this man know Tom.'

'He can't,' said Tom, in great perplexity, 'if he's a Londoner. I don't
know any one in London.'

'And on my observing,' John resumed, still keeping his hand upon Tom's
wrist, 'that I had no doubt he would excuse the freedom I took in
inquiring who directed him to me; how he came to know of the change
which had taken place in my friend's position; and how he came to be
acquainted with my friend's peculiar fitness for such an office as he
had described; he drily said that he was not at liberty to enter into
any explanations.'

'Not at liberty to enter into any explanations!' repeated Tom, drawing a
long breath.

'"I must be perfectly aware," he said,' John added, '"that to any person
who had ever been in Mr Pecksniff's neighbourhood, Mr Thomas Pinch and
his acquirements were as well known as the Church steeple, or the Blue
Dragon."'

'The Blu