ome up of a morning about twelve,--I 'm
generally down here by that time. There will be a great press for
messengers soon, for they have made a regulation about one going only so
far, and another taking up his bag and handing it on to a third; and the
consequence is, there are three now stuck fast at Marseilles, and two at
Belgrade, and all the Constantinople despatches have gone round by the
Cape. Of course, as I say, they 'll have to alter this, and then we
shall suddenly want every fellow we can lay hands on; so all you have
to do is just to be ready, and I 'll take care to start you at the first
chance."

"You 're a good fellow," cried Tony, grasping his hand; "if you only
knew what a bad swimmer it was you picked out of the water."

"Oh, I can do that much, at least," said he, modestly, "though I'm not
a clever fellow like Skeffy; but I must go back, or I shall 'catch it.'
Look in the day after to-morrow."

"And let us dine together; that is, you will dine with me," said Tony.
The other acceded freely, and they parted.

That magnetism by which young fellows are drawn instantaneously towards
each other, and feel something that, if not friendship, is closely akin
to it, never repeats itself in after life. We grow more cautious about
our contracts as we grow older. I wonder do we make better bargains?

If Tony was then somewhat discouraged by his reception at the Office, he
had the pleasure of thinking he was compensated in that new-found friend
who was so fond of Skeffy, and who could talk away as enthusiastically
about him as himself. "Now for M'Gruder and Cannon Row, wherever that
may be," said he, as he sauntered along; "I 'll certainly go and
see him, if only to shake hands with a fellow that showed such 'good
blood.'" There was no one quality which Tony could prize higher than
this. The man who could take a thrashing in good part, and forgive him
who gave it, must be a fine fellow, he thought; and I 'm not disposed to
say he was wrong.

The address was 27 Cannon Street, City; and it was a long way off, and
the day somewhat spent when he reached it.

"Mr. M'Gruder?" asked Tony of a blear-eyed man, at a small faded desk in
a narrow office.

"Inside!" said he, with a jerk of his thumb; and Tony pushed his way
into a small room, so crammed with reams of paper that there was barely
space to squeeze a passage to a little writing-table next the window.

"Well, sir, your pleasure?" said M'Gruder, as Tony came