ched the spot where stood the stranger who had inquired
for him. He was of a slight and gentlemanly figure, above the average
height. His countenance was very striking: he was dressed with
simplicity--somewhat carelessly perhaps; and appeared somewhere about
thirty-six or thirty-seven years of age. He bowed slightly as Titmouse
approached him, and an air of very serious surprise came over his
expressive countenance.

"Mr. Titmouse?" he inquired blandly.

"Ye-e-s, sir, at your service," replied Titmouse, trembling
involuntarily all over. The stranger again slightly inclined towards
him, and--still more slightly--touched his hat; fixing on him, at the
same time, an inquisitive penetrating eye, which really abashed, or
rather perhaps alarmed him.

"You left--you favored us by leaving--a note at our office last night,
sir, addressed to Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap?" he inquired,
lowering his voice to a whisper.

"Yes, sir, hoping it was no"----

"Pray, Mr. Titmouse, can we be alone for about five or ten minutes?"

"I--I--don't exactly know, _here_, sir; I'm afraid--against the rules of
the house--but I'll ask. Here _is_ Mr. Tag-rag.--May I step into the
cloak-room with this gentleman for a few minutes, sir?" he continued,
addressing his imperious employer, who, with a pen behind his right ear,
his left hand in his breeches pocket, and his right hand impatiently
tweedling about his watch-seals, had followed Titmouse, on hearing him
inquired for in the manner I have described, and stood at a yard or
two's distance, eying the two with a truculent dissatisfied look,
wondering what on earth any one _could_ want with one of _his_ young
men.

As Mr. Tag-rag will be rather a prominent figure on my canvas, I may as
well here give the reader a slight preparatory sketch of that gentleman.
He was about fifty-two years old; a great tyrant in his little way; a
compound of ignorance, selfishness, cant, and conceit. He knew nothing
on earth except the price of his goods, and how to make the most of his
business. He was of middle size, with a tendency to corpulence; and
almost invariably wore a black coat and waistcoat, a white neck
handkerchief very primly tied, and gray trousers. He had a dull, gray
eye, with white eyelashes, and no eyebrows; a forehead which seemed
ashamed of his face, it retreated so far and so abruptly back from it;
his face was pretty deeply pitted with the small-pox; his nose--or
rather semblance of a nos