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niinute.particula.rs.- Mr. Venus, sticking to’ his ten,
briedy professed his belief, as polite‘ forms required of
him, that it was a hand which never yet. Butcontented
himself with looking at it, and did not take‘ it to his
. ‘,‘ Brother,” said VVe gwhen this happy understanding
' was i established, “ I s ould like "to ask you something.
You remember the night when I first ‘looked in here,
and found you iioating your powerful mind in tea. ?’f
Still swilling tea, Mr. Venus noddedassent,
‘.‘ And there you sit, sir,” pursued VVegg with an air of
thoughtful admiration, “as if you had never left off i
There you sit, sir, as if you had an unlimited capacity of
assimilating the fragrant article‘! There you sit, sir,
in the midst of your works. looking as if you’d been
called uponpfor Home, Sweet Home, and was obleeging
the company I, ‘ , V ‘ g .‘
“ ‘A exile from home s lendour dazzles in vain, ,
4, 9‘ ‘ 0 've you your low y Pre arations again, -
“ ‘Thegiiidgafltxrned so sweet y that e‘an‘t be expected to come at
“ ‘ Give you these with the peace of mind dearer than all.
"' ‘ Home, Home, Home, sweet Home.’ , v > ,
--Be it ever,” added Mr. ‘Veg-g in prose as he glanced
about the shop, “ ever so ghastly, all things considered
there's no place like it.” i ‘
“ You said you’d like to ask something ; but you
haven’t asked it,’T remarked Venus, very unsympathetic
in manner." , ' ' ‘ ' ’ '5
“ Your peace of mind,” said VVegg, offering condolence,
“your peace ofmind was 'in a poor way that‘ night,
. How’s it going on? Is it looking up at all ?” '
p “ She does not wish,” replied Mr. Venus with a comi-
cal mixture of indignant obstinacy and tender melancholy, ,
“ to regard herself, nor yet to be ‘regarded, in that par-
ticular light. Therc’s no more who said.”
“Ah, dear me, dear‘me’l”, exclaimed XVegg with a
sigh, but eyeing him while pretending to keep him com-
pany in eyeingrthe fire,,“sucl1.is VVoman'! And Ire-
’ member you said that night, sitting there as I sat here-
said that night when your peace of mind was first laid
low, that you had taken an interest in these very affairs.
Such is coincidence l.” . ’ ' -
“ Her father,” rejoined Venus, and then stopped to
swallow more tea, “ herfather was mixed up in them.”
“ You didn’t mention her name, sir, I think ‘Z ” ‘observed
VVegg, pensiveiy. I“, No, you didn’t mention herlnemo
that night.” ‘ ‘ ‘ ' " ‘ ‘ '
. “ Pleasant Riderhood.” . . ‘ , ‘ ‘
.“ In-deed l ” cried VVegg. “ Pleasant Iliderhood.
Thero’s something moving in the name. Pleasant. Dear
Ine ! Seemsto express what she might have been, if she
hadn’t made that unpleasant remark-and what she ain’t,
in consequence of having made it. VVould it at all pour
balm into your wounds, Mr. Venus, to inquire how vou
became acquainted with her?’7 ‘ ‘ " ' ' '
, “I was down at the water-side,” said'Venns, taking
another gulp of tea and moumfully winking at the fire
-7“ looking for parrots”-taking another gulp and stop.
mg. , .
I.) Mr.‘ VVegg hinted, to jog his attention: ‘ “You ‘could
hardly have been out parrot-shooting, in the British cu.
mate, sir ‘I. . ' " ' ' '
f", Nov 110. I10,” Said Venus fretfully. “I was down at
the ‘water-side, looking for parrots brought home by sail-
-ors, to buy, for stuffing.” ' ‘
.‘‘Ay, ay, ay, sir l” , , V‘ 3-
.“-and looking for a nice pair of rattlesnakes to
articulate for a Museum-‘when I was doomed to fall in
with her and ‘deal with her. It was just at the time of
that discovery in the river. Her father had seen the dis-
covcry being towed in the river. ' I made the popularity ‘
of the subject a reason for going back toimprove the ac,
quaintance, and I have never since been the man I was,
My very bones is rendered flabby by brooding over it. If
they could be brought’ to ‘me loose, to sort, I should
hardly have the face to claim ’em as mine. To such an
extent have I fallen off under it.” ' ' ‘ ' ‘
Mr. VVegg, less interested than he had been; glanced
at one particular shelf in"the dark. ' ‘
"‘ Why I remember, Mr. Venus," he said in ‘a tone of
friendly commiseration “(for ‘I remember every word
l a despdndent rise and full of his eyes.
0HARLE.S'.DIO11’ENS’A WORKS.
that falls from you, sir), I remember thatlyon said that
night, you had got up there--and then your words was,
‘ Never mind.’ ” l , ’ -
“ -The parrot that I bought of her,” said Venus, with
“ Yes; there it
lies on’ its side, dried ‘up; except" for its plumage, very
like myself. I’ve never had the heart to prepare it, and
I never shall have now.” . " ' ‘ "
VVith4 a disappointed face, Silas mentally consigned
‘ this parrot to regions more than tropical, and, seeming
for the time to have lost his power of assuming an inter-
est in the woes of vlllr. -Venus,‘ fell to tightening his
wooden leg as a preparation for departure: its gymnas-
tic performances of that evening having severely tried
its constitution. ‘
’ After Silas had left the shop, hat-box in hand, and had
left Mr.‘ Venus to lower himself to oblivion-point with
the requisite weight of tea, it greatly preyed on his in-
genuous mind that he had taken this artist into partner-
ship at all. He bitterly ' felt that he had overreached
himself in the beginning, by grasping at Mr. Venus’s
mere straws of hints, now shown to be worthless for his
purpose. . Casting about for ways and means of dissolving
the connexion without loss of money, reproaching himself
for having been betrayed into an avowal of his secret, and
complimenting himself beyond measure on his purely
accidental good luck, he beguiled the distance between
Clerkenwell and the mansion of the Golden Dustman.
For, Silas VVegg felt it to be quite out of the question
that he could lay his head Qpon his pillow in peace, With-
out first hovering over Mr. Bofiin’s house in the superior
character of its Evil Genius. Power (unless it be the
power of intellect or virtue) has ever the greatest attrac-
tion for the lowest natures ;, and the mere defiance of the
unconscious ‘house-front, with his power to strip the roof
off the inhabiting family like the roof of a house of cards,
was a treat which had a charm for Silas ‘Vegg.
As he hovered on the opposite side of the street, exalt-
ing, a carriage drove up. ' ‘ ‘
' “ There’Il shortly be an end of ‘you,” said VVegg,
hreatening it with the hat-box. ' “ Your varnish is fed-
n J) .
1 .
Mrs. Baffin descended and went in. ’ i ‘ ,
“Look out for a fall, my Lady Dustwoman,” Said
VVegg. " ", ’
Bella lightly descended,'and ran‘in after her.
‘f How brisk we are l” said VVegg. ‘ “ You won’t run
so gaily to your old shabby home, my girl. You'll have
to go there, though.” . ,' ’
A little while,‘ and the Secretary came out.
“I was passed over for you,’,’ said VVegg. “ B11‘ F0“
had better provide yourself with another situation, young
man.” ’ I
"Mr. Bofiin’s shadow passed upon the blinds of three
large windows as he trotted down the room, and 103559
again as he went back. ' i i ' n t
“ Yoop I” cried VVegg. " You’re there. M6 70“?
Where’s the bottle ‘2 You would give your bottle for 111)’
box, Dustman l ” - - ‘ . ' ' ' 4
Having now composed his mind for slumber, he tl1TT1“;d
homeward. Such was the greed of the fellow, that 1115
mind had shot beyond halves, two-thirds, three-fourths,
and gone straight to spoliation of the whole. “ T110554’
that wouldn’t quite do,” he‘ considered, growing cool-er if-3
he 5I0t'0-Wi1-y- “That’s what would happen to hlmgf
he didn't buy ns 11 . lVe should get nothing by that
“To so judge ot rers by ourselves,” that it had'n8"9"
come into his head before, that he might not buy us VP-
and might prove honest, and prefer to be poor. 'ltC41115‘3d
him a slight tremor as it passed ; but a very slight 059’
for the idle thought was gone directly. ‘V . ’ , - ,
“.IIe’s grown too fond of moneyfor that,”said ‘ii. egg-
.“ be’s grown too fond of money.” The burden fell into 8
strain or tune as he stumped along the pavements.
the way home he stumped it out of the rattling streets,
piano with his own foot, and forte with his wooden 199'
“ He's onown too Form of MONEY for rum, he‘s onoWN
too FOND of MONEY." ‘ ‘ , ' ‘ ' ' ' " .
Even next day Silas soothed himself with this melod1-
ous strain, when he was called out of bed at daybreak, W
Set open the yard gate and admit the train,of carts 0”"
horses that came to carry off the little Mound. ,. A-Dd “
a
.;g,,.