other, Miss Moore, and Mrs. Horsfall
successfully out of the way before four o'clock that afternoon.

The first was, for the present, the most pressing, since the work before
him demanded an amount of energy which the present empty condition of
his youthful stomach did not seem likely to supply.

Martin knew the way to the larder, and knowing this way he took it. The
servants were in the kitchen, breakfasting solemnly with closed doors;
his mother and Miss Moore were airing themselves on the lawn, and
discussing the closed doors aforesaid. Martin, safe in the larder, made
fastidious selection from its stores. His breakfast had been delayed; he
was determined it should be _recherche_. It appeared to him that a
variety on his usual somewhat insipid fare of bread and milk was both
desirable and advisable; the savoury and the salutary he thought might
be combined. There was store of rosy apples laid in straw upon a shelf;
he picked out three. There was pastry upon a dish; he selected an
apricot puff and a damson tart. On the plain household bread his eye
did not dwell; but he surveyed with favour some currant tea-cakes, and
condescended to make choice of one. Thanks to his clasp-knife, he was
able to appropriate a wing of fowl and a slice of ham; a cantlet of cold
custard-pudding he thought would harmonize with these articles; and
having made this final addition to his booty, he at length sallied forth
into the hall.

He was already half-way across--three steps more would have anchored him
in the harbour of the back parlour--when the front door opened, and
there stood Matthew. Better far had it been the Old Gentleman, in full
equipage of horns, hoofs, and tail.

Matthew, sceptic and scoffer, had already failed to subscribe a prompt
belief in that pain about the heart. He had muttered some words, amongst
which the phrase "shamming Abraham" had been very distinctly audible,
and the succession to the armchair and newspaper had appeared to affect
him with mental spasms. The spectacle now before him--the apples, the
tarts, the tea-cakes, the fowl, ham, and pudding--offered evidence but
too well calculated to inflate his opinion of his own sagacity.

Martin paused _interdit_ one minute, one instant; the next he knew his
ground, and pronounced all well. With the true perspicacity _des ames
elites_, he at once saw how this at first sight untoward event might be
turned to excellent account. He saw how it might be so handled as t