lly shook his head a second time, still more emphatically than the
first.

"But you say he does discount paper,--gets rich on it?"

"Yes, gets rich on 'it, which he might not do if he discounted the paper
you propose. No offence."

"Oh, no offence among friends! You have taken him bills which he has
discounted?"

"Yes,--good paper."

"Any paper signed by good names is good paper. We can sign good names if
we know their handwritings."

Dolly started, and turned white. Knave he was,--cheat at cards, blackleg
on the turf,--but forgery! that crime was new to him. The very notion
of it brought on a return of fever; and while Jasper was increasing his
malady by arguing with his apprehensions, luckily for Poole, Uncle Sam
came in. Uncle Sam, a sagacious old tradesman, no sooner clapped eyes on
the brilliant Losely than he conceived for him a distrustful repugnance,
similar to that with which an experienced gander may regard a fox in
colloquy with its gosling. He had already learned enough of his godson's
ways and chosen society to be assured that Samuel Dolly had indulged
in very anti-commercial tastes, and been sadly contaminated by very
anti-commercial friends. He felt persuaded that Dolly's sole chance
of redemption was in working on his mind while his body was still
suffering, so that Poole might, on recovery, break with all former
associations. On seeing Jasper in the dress of an exquisite, with the
thrws of a prize-fighter, Uncle Sam saw the stalwart incarnation of
all the sins which a godfather had vowed that a godson should renounce.
Accordingly, he made himself so disagreeable that Losely, in great
disgust, took a hasty departure. And Uncle Sam, as he helped the nurse
to plunge Dolly into his bed, had the brutality to tell his nephew, in
very plain terms, that if ever he found that Brummagem gent in Poole's
rooms again, Poole would never again see the colour of Uncle Sam's
money. Dolly beginning to blubber, the good man relenting patted him on
the back, and said, "But as soon as you are well, I'll carry you with
me to my country-box, and keep you out of harm's way till I find you a
wife, who will comb your head for you;" at which cheering prospect Poole
blubbered more dolefully than before. On retiring to his own lodging in
the Gloucester Coffee-house, Uncle Sam, to make all sure, gave positive
orders to Poole's landlady, who respected in Uncle Sam the man who
might pay what Poole owed to her, on no account to