n Rokesmith, as he now called himself), soon found this out, for he
cleverly got a position as Mr. Boffin's secretary, taking charge of all
his papers and preventing many dishonest people from cheating him. And
Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, never suspecting who he really was, instead of
"secretary," called him "Our Mutual Friend," and soon grew fond of him.

Nor did they forget Bella Wilfer (for whose disappointment, at not
getting the rich husband she had expected, they felt very sorry), and
soon invited her to live with them. Bella was a good-tempered, pretty
girl, though inclined to be somewhat selfish and spoiled, and she was
not sure, after all, that she would have liked a husband who had been
willed to her like a dozen silver spoons; so she did not grieve greatly,
and accepted Mr. and Mrs. Boffin's offer gratefully.

So now the secretary, John Rokesmith, beside being constantly with Mr.
and Mrs. Boffin, whom he had always loved, had a chance to see Bella
every day, and he was not long in finding out that it would be very
easy, indeed, for him to fall in love with her.

II

LIZZIE HEXAM AND THE DOLLS' DRESSMAKER

Hexam, the riverman who had found the body floating in the Thames, made
a living by watching in his boat for drowned bodies, and getting any
rewards that might be offered for finding them. He had two children--a
daughter, Lizzie, who used to row the boat for him, and a younger son,
Charley.

Lizzie was a beautiful girl and a good daughter, and she never ceased to
beseech her father to quit this ghastly business. She saved every cent
she could get to give her brother some schooling, and kept urging the
boy until he left home and became a teacher in a respectable school. For
her own part she chose to stay by her father, hoping, in spite of her
hatred of his calling, to make him sometime something better.

The night Hexam found the body the lawyers who had the Harmon will in
charge came to his house to see about it. One of them, a careless young
man by the name of Eugene Wrayburn, was greatly struck with the beauty
of Lizzie, and pitied her because of the life she was obliged to live,
and this interest in her made him even more deeply interested in the
case of the odd will and the strange murder.

Now Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, since they were rich, had offered a great
reward for the arrest of the murderer of John Harmon. To get this reward
and at the same time to avenge himself on his old partner Hexam for
casti