tleman Waife. However that man fell into sick straits,
how he came to join sich a caravan, would puzzle most heads. It puzzles
Joe Spruce, uncommon; it don't puzzle me."

"Why?" asked Vance.

"Cos of Saturn!"

"Satan?"

"Saturn,--dead agin his Second and Tenth House, I'll swear. Lord of
Ascendant, mayhap; in combustion of the Sun,--who knows?"

"You're not an astrologer?" said Vance, suspiciously, edging off.

"Bit of it; no offence."

"What does it signify?" said Lionel, impatiently; "go on. So you called
Mr. Waife 'Gentleman Waife;' and if you had not been an astrologer you
would have been puzzled to see him in such a calling."

"Ay, that's it; for he warn't like any as we ever see on these boards
hereabouts; and yet he warn't exactly like a Lunnon actor, as I have
seen 'em in Lunnon, either, but more like a clever fellow who acted for
the spree of the thing. He had sich droll jests, and looked so comical,
yet not commonlike, but always what I calls a gentleman,--just as if
one o' ye two were doing a bit of sport to please your friends. Well,
he drew hugely, and so he did, every time he came, so that the great
families in the neighbourhood would go to hear him; and he lodged in my
house, and had pleasant ways with him, and was what I call a scollard.
But still I don't want to deceive ye, and I should judge him to have
been a wild dog in his day. Mercury ill-aspected,--not a doubt of it.
Last year it so happened that one of the great gents who belong to a
Lunnon theatre was here at fair-time. Whether he had heard of Waife
chanceways, and come express to judge for hisself, I can't say; like
eno'. And when he had seen Gentleman Waife act, he sent for him to the
inn--Red Lion--and offered him a power o' money to go to Lunnon,--Common
Garden. Well, sir, Waife did not take to it all at once, but hemmed and
hawed, and was at last quite coaxed into it, and so he went. But
bad luck came on it; and I knew there would, for I saw it all in my
crystal."

"Oh," exclaimed Vance, "a crystal, too; really it is getting late, and
if you had your crystal about you, you might see that we want to sup."

"What happened?" asked Lionel, more blandly, for he saw the Cobbler, who
had meant to make a great effect by the introduction of the crystal, was
offended.

"What happened? why, just what I foreseed. There was an accident in the
railway 'tween this and Lunnon, and poor Waife lost an eye, and was a
cripple for life: so he could