well. I understand. I must, I suppose, give you a receipt?"

"Undoubtedly; and, if you please, precisely in this form."

I handed him a copy on a slip of paper. He ran it over, smiled,
transcribed it on a stamp, signed it, and, as I handed him a check for
the amount, placed it in my hands. We mutually bowed, and I went my way.

Notwithstanding Mr. Newton's opposition, who was naturally furious at the
unexpected turn the affair had taken, the identity of the boy--whom that
gentleman persisted in asserting to be dead and buried--was clearly
established; and Mr. Archibald Andrews, on the day he became of age,
received possession of his fortune. The four thousand pounds had of
course been repaid out of Jesse Andrews's legacy. That person has, so to
speak, since skulked through life, a mark for the covert scorn of every
person acquainted with the very black transaction here recorded. This was
doubtless a much better fate than he deserved; and in strict, or poetical
justice, his punishment ought unquestionably to have been much
greater--more apparent also, than it was, for example's sake. But I am a
man not of fiction, but of fact, and consequently relate events, not as
they precisely ought, but as they do, occasionally occur in lawyers'
offices, and other unpoetical nooks and corners of this prosaic,
matter-of-fact, working-day world.

BIGAMY OR NO BIGAMY?

The firm of Flint and Sharp enjoyed, whether deservedly or not, when I
was connected with it, as it still does, a high reputation for keen
practice and shrewd business-management. This kind of professional fame
is usually far more profitable than the drum-and-trumpet variety of the
same article; or at least we found it so; and often, from blush of morn
to far later than dewy eve--which natural phenomena, by the way, were
only emblematically observed by me during thirty busy years in the
extinguishment of the street lamps at dawn, and their re-illumination at
dusk--did I and my partner incessantly pursue our golden avocations;
deferring what are usually esteemed the pleasures of life--its banquets,
music, flowers, and lettered ease--till the toil, and heat, and hurry of
the day were past, and a calm, luminous evening, unclouded by care or
anxiety, had arrived. This conduct may or may not have been wise; but at
all events it daily increased the connection and transactions of the
firm, and ultimately anchored us both very comfortably in the three per
cents; and t