ly looking grey-haired woman who
had played the part of nurse, and she drew back, smiling, to show them
into a cheerful sitting room, well-furnished, with a canary on one side
of the window and a particularly sage-looking starling in a wicker cage
on the other.

"Ah, Dick!" said Brettison, rubbing his finger along the sides of the
canary's cage. "Well, Jack!"

The yellow bird burst into song, and the speckled starling uttered a
sharp, jarring sound, and set up all its sharp-pointed, prickly looking
plumes till it resembled a feathered porcupine.

"Not such an uncomfortable place for a man to live in, eh?" said
Brettison cheerily. "Better than our dull, dusty chambers, eh?"

Stratton's eyes were wandering about, noting a clay tobacco pipe on the
hob, a jar on the table, and an easy-chair and spittoon by the
fireplace, while flowers were in a vase on the table, and a couple of
solemn looking, swollen-eyed, pompous goldfish sailed round and round
their little crystal globe, as if it were their world, and nothing
outside were of the least consequence, unless it might have been the fat
cat, with fish-hook claws, half asleep where the sun made a patch on the
stone outside the French window.

"Like this place better than the old street, eh, Mary?" said Brettison.

"Oh, indeed yes, sir! It's quite like being in the country, and yet
with all the advantages of town."

"As the house agent said in his advertisement, eh? Well, where is Mr
Cousin?"

"Only gone to get his morning shave, sir. He'll be back soon."

"Humph! Pretty well?"

"Oh, yes, sir; he's nicely, thank you. Really, sir, I don't think he
wants the chair at all. It's only because he likes it and has grown
used to it."

"Yes, yes; I suppose so. Creatures of habit, Mary. Want any money--any
rates or taxes due? Coal cellar all right--want another ton?"

"Oh, no, sir, thank you. I haven't near got through the last money
yet."

"Mary, you're a paragon of economy," said Brettison. "There, that will
do now. I'll sit down and have a chat with my friend till he comes
back."

There was a smile and a courtesy, and the woman withdrew.

"Sit down, my dear boy. No use to make a labour of our task. Not bad
quarters, eh? Not to be changed lightly for the locks and bars of The
Foreland, eh?"

Stratton looked at him reproachfully.

"Are you not taking all this too lightly?" he said.

"Oh, I hope not. But we shall see. I'm afraid that I should ne