Ouzelford?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"Yesterday. I was in the City Reading-Room, looking out of the window. I
saw a great white dog in the street below; I knew the dog at once, sir,
though he is disguised by restoration to his natural coat, and his hair
is as long as a Peruvian lama's. ''Tis Sir Isaac,' said I to myself; and
behind Sir Isaac I saw Chapman, so to call him, carrying a basket with
pedlar's wares, and, to my surprise, Old Jessop, who is a formal man,
with a great deal of reserve and dignity, pompous indeed (but don't let
that go further), talking to Chapman quite affably, and actually buying
something out of the basket. Presently Chapman went away, and was soon
lost to sight. Jessop comes into the Reading-Room. 'I saw you,' said I,
'talking to an old fellow with a French dog.' 'Such a good old fellow,'
said Jessop; 'has a way about him that gets into your very heart while
he is talking. I should like to make you acquainted with him.' 'Thank
you for nothing,' said I; 'I should be-taken in.' 'Never fear,' says
Jessop, 'he would not take in a fly--the simplest creature.' I own I
chuckled at that, Mr. George. 'And does he live here,' said I, 'or is he
merely a wandering pedlar?' Then Jessop told me that he had seen him for
the first time two or three weeks ago, and accosted him rudely, looking
on him as a mere tramp; but Chapman answered so well, and showed so many
pretty things in his basket, that Jessop soon found himself buying a
pair of habit-cuffs for Anna Maria, and in the course of talk it came
out, I suppose by a sign, that Chapman was a Freemason, and Jessop is an
enthusiast in that sort of nonsense, master of a lodge or something,
and that was a new attraction. In short, Jessop took a great fancy to
him--patronised him, promised him protection, and actually recommended
him to a lodging in the cottage of all old widow who lives in the
outskirts of the town, and had once been a nurse in the Jessop family.
And what do you think Jessop had just bought of this simple creature'!
A pair of worsted mittens as a present for me, and what is more, I have
got them on this moment-look! neat, I think, and monstrous warm. Now,
I have hitherto kept my own counsel. I have not said to Jessop,
'Beware--that is the man who took me in.' But this concealment is a
little on my conscience. On the one hand, it seems very cruel, even if
the man did once commit a crime, in spite of your charitable convictions
to the contrary, that