Paul? Paul, I say, my ben cull. Alack!
he's gone,--left his poor old nurse to die like a cat in a cellar. Oh,
Dummie, never live to be old, man! They leaves us to oursel's, and then
takes away all the lush with 'em! I has not a drop o' comfort in the
'varsal world!"

Dummie, who at this moment had his own reasons for soothing the dame,
and was anxious to make the most of the opportunity of a conversation as
unwitnessed as the present, replied tenderly, and with a cunning likely
to promote his end, reproached Paul bitterly for never having informed
the dame of his whereabout and his proceedings. "But come, dame," he
wound up, "come, I guess as how he is better nor all that, and that you
need not beat your hold brains to think where he lies, or vot he's a
doing. Blow me tight, Mother Lob,--I ax pardon, Mrs. Margery, I should
say,--if I vould not give five bob, ay, and five to the tail o' that, to
know what the poor lad is about; I takes a mortal hinterest in that 'ere
chap!"

"Oh! oh!" groaned the old woman, on whose palsied sense the astute
inquiries of Dummie Dunnaker fell harmless; "my poor sinful carcass!
what a way it be in!"

Artfully again did Dummie Dunnaker, nothing defeated, renew his attack;
but fortune does not always favour the wise, and it failed Dummie now,
for a twofold reason,--first, because it was not possible for the
dame to comprehend him; secondly, because even if it had been, she had
nothing to reveal. Some of Clifford's pecuniary gifts had been conveyed
anonymously, all without direction or date; and for the most part they
had been appropriated by the sage Martha, into whose hands they fell,
to her own private uses. Nor did the dame require Clifford's grateful
charity; for she was a woman tolerably well off in this world,
considering how near she was waxing to another. Longer, however, might
Dummie have tried his unavailing way, had not the door of the inn
creaked on its hinges, and the bulky form of a tall man in a smockfrock,
but with a remarkably fine head of hair, darkened the threshold. He
honoured the dame, who cast on him a lacklustre eye, with a sulky yet
ambrosial nod, seized a bottle of spirits and a tumbler, lighted a
candle, drew a small German pipe and a tobacco-box from his pouch,
placed these several luxuries on a small table, wheeled it to a far
corner of the room, and throwing himself into one chair, and his
legs into another, he enjoyed the result of his pains in a moody and
s