idy, in remembrance of her with whom I shall never again thread the
windings of the mazy; whom I shall never more pledge in the rosy; who,
during the short remainder of my existence, will murder the balmy. Ha,
ha, ha!'

It may be necessary to observe, lest there should appear any
incongruity in the close of this soliloquy, that Mr Swiveller did not
wind up with a cheerful hilarious laugh, which would have been
undoubtedly at variance with his solemn reflections, but that, being in
a theatrical mood, he merely achieved that performance which is
designated in melodramas 'laughing like a fiend,'--for it seems that
your fiends always laugh in syllables, and always in three syllables,
never more nor less, which is a remarkable property in such gentry, and
one worthy of remembrance.

The baleful sounds had hardly died away, and Mr Swiveller was still
sitting in a very grim state in the clients' chair, when there came a
ring--or, if we may adapt the sound to his then humour, a knell--at
the office bell. Opening the door with all speed, he beheld the
expressive countenance of Mr Chuckster, between whom and himself a
fraternal greeting ensued.

'You're devilish early at this pestiferous old slaughter-house,' said
that gentleman, poising himself on one leg, and shaking the other in an
easy manner.

'Rather,' returned Dick.

'Rather!' retorted Mr Chuckster, with that air of graceful trifling
which so well became him. 'I should think so. Why, my good feller, do
you know what o'clock it is--half-past nine a.m. in the morning?'

'Won't you come in?' said Dick. 'All alone. Swiveller solus. 'Tis
now the witching--'

'"Hour of night!"'

'"When churchyards yawn,"'

'"And graves give up their dead."'

At the end of this quotation in dialogue, each gentleman struck an
attitude, and immediately subsiding into prose walked into the office.
Such morsels of enthusiasm are common among the Glorious Apollos, and
were indeed the links that bound them together, and raised them above
the cold dull earth.

'Well, and how are you my buck?' said Mr Chuckster, taking a stool. 'I
was forced to come into the City upon some little private matters of my
own, and couldn't pass the corner of the street without looking in, but
upon my soul I didn't expect to find you. It is so everlastingly
early.'

Mr Swiveller expressed his acknowledgments; and it appearing on further
conversation that he was in good health, and that Mr Chuckster w