said Ralph. 'I look sharply after most men that I deal with,
and most of all I looked sharply after you. You are welcome to all you
have kept from me.'

'Are those of your own name dear to you?' said the man emphatically. 'If
they are--'

'They are not,' returned Ralph, exasperated at this perseverance, and
the thought of Nicholas, which the last question awakened. 'They are
not. If you had come as a common beggar, I might have thrown a sixpence
to you in remembrance of the clever knave you used to be; but since you
try to palm these stale tricks upon one you might have known better,
I'll not part with a halfpenny--nor would I to save you from rotting.
And remember this, 'scape-gallows,' said Ralph, menacing him with
his hand, 'that if we meet again, and you so much as notice me by one
begging gesture, you shall see the inside of a jail once more, and
tighten this hold upon me in intervals of the hard labour that vagabonds
are put to. There's my answer to your trash. Take it.'

With a disdainful scowl at the object of his anger, who met his eye
but uttered not a word, Ralph walked away at his usual pace, without
manifesting the slightest curiosity to see what became of his late
companion, or indeed once looking behind him. The man remained on the
same spot with his eyes fixed upon his retreating figure until it was
lost to view, and then drawing his arm about his chest, as if the damp
and lack of food struck coldly to him, lingered with slouching steps by
the wayside, and begged of those who passed along.

Ralph, in no-wise moved by what had lately passed, further than as he
had already expressed himself, walked deliberately on, and turning out
of the Park and leaving Golden Square on his right, took his way through
some streets at the west end of the town until he arrived in that
particular one in which stood the residence of Madame Mantalini. The
name of that lady no longer appeared on the flaming door-plate, that of
Miss Knag being substituted in its stead; but the bonnets and dresses
were still dimly visible in the first-floor windows by the decaying
light of a summer's evening, and excepting this ostensible alteration in
the proprietorship, the establishment wore its old appearance.

'Humph!' muttered Ralph, drawing his hand across his mouth with a
connoisseur-like air, and surveying the house from top to bottom; 'these
people look pretty well. They can't last long; but if I know of their
going in good time,