uick at that.
I have been fortunate enough to procure you an easy piece of task-work,
for which you will be liberally remunerated. A friend of mine wishes to
submit these books to a regular accountant: he suspects that a clerk
has cheated him; but he cannot tell how or where. You know accounts
thoroughly,--no one better,--and the pay will be ten guineas."

Jasper, though his early life had rendered familiar and facile to him
the science of book-keeping and double-entry, made a grimace at the
revolting idea of any honest labour, however light and well paid. But
ten guineas were an immense temptation, and in the evening Mrs. Crane
coaxed him into the task.

Neglecting no feminine art to make the lawless nomad feel at home under
her roof, she had provided for his ease and comfort morocco slippers
and a superb dressing-robe, in material rich, in colour becoming. Men,
single or marital, are accustomed to connect the idea of home with
dressing-gown and slippers, especially if, after dinner, they apply (as
Jasper Losely now applied) to occupations in which the brain is active,
the form in repose. What achievement, literary or scientific, was ever
accomplished by a student strapped to unyielding boots, and "cabined,
cribbed, confined," in a coat that fits him like wax? As robed in the
cozy garment which is consecrated to the sacred familiar Lares, the
relaxing, handsome ruffian sat in the quiet room, bending his still
regular profile over the sheepskin books, the harmless pen in that
strong well-shaped hand, Mrs. Crane watched him with a softening
countenance. To bear him company, she had actively taken, herself,
to work,--the gold thimble dragged from its long repose,--marking and
hemming, with nimble artistic fingers, new cravats for the adopted son!
Strange creature is woman! Ungrateful and perfidious as that sleek tiger
before her had often proved himself, though no man could less deserve
one kindly sentiment in a female heart, though she knew that he cared
nothing for her, still it was pleasing to know that he cared for nobody
else, that he was sitting in the same room; and Arabella Crane felt
that, if that existence could continue, she could forget the past and
look contented towards the future. Again I say, strange creature is
woman; and in this instance, creature more strange, because so grim! But
as her eyes soften, and her fingers work, and her mind revolves schemes
for making that lawless wild beast an innocuous tam