Well,
well, the chances of life the accidents of birth!"

He shook his head for some minutes, murmuring inarticulate regrets.

"I think I'll just have one more, Gammon."

"I think not, old boy. Where did you say you lived?"

"Oh, that's all right. Most comfortable lodgings in the parish of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields. If you have the slightest doubt of my veracity,
leave me, Gammon; I beg you will leave me. I--in fact, I have an
appointment with a gentleman I met at poor Bolsover's funeral."

With no little difficulty Gammon led him away, and by means of an
omnibus landed him at length near St. Martin's Church. No entreaty
could induce the man to give his address. He protested that a few
minutes' walk would bring him home, and as he seemed to have sobered
sufficiently, Gammon left him sitting on the church steps--a strange
object in his borrowed suit of mourning and his antiquated top hat.

CHAPTER VI

THE HEAD WAITER AT CHAFFEY'S

Polly Sparkes had a father. That Mr. Sparkes still lived was not known
to the outer circles of Polly's acquaintance; she never spoke of her
family, and it was not easy to think of Polly in the filial relation.
For some years she had lived in complete independence, now and then
exchanging a letter with her parent, but seeing him rarely. Not that
they were on ill terms, unpleasantness of that kind had been avoided by
their satisfaction in living apart. Polly sometimes wished she had a
father "to be proud of"--a sufficiently intelligible phrase on Polly's
lips; but for the rest she thought of him with tolerance as a good,
silly sort of man, who "couldn't help himself"--that is to say, could
not help being what he was.

And Mr. Sparkes was a waiter, had been a waiter for some thirty years,
and would probably pursue the calling as long as he was fit for it. In
this fact he saw nothing to be ashamed of. It had never occurred to him
that anyone could or should be ashamed of the position; nevertheless,
Mr. Sparkes was a disappointed, even an embittered, man; and that for a
subtle reason, which did credit to his sensibility.

All his life he had been employed at Chaffey's. As a boy of ten he
joined Chaffey's in the capacity of plate washer; zeal and conduct
promoted him, and seniority made him at length head waiter. In those
days Chaffey's was an eating-house of the old kind, one long room with
"boxes"; beef its staple dish, its drink a sound porter at twopence a
pint. How many thou