"The pot and kettle, anyhow, t.i.t, as far as that goes--hem!--but let's spell over this letter; we haven't studied it yet; I'm a hand, rather, at getting at what's said in a letter!--Come"--and they drew their chairs together, Huckaback reading over the letter slowly, alone; t.i.tmouse's eyes travelling incessantly from his friend's countenance to the letter, and so back again, to gather what might be the effect of its perusal.

"There's a glimpse of daylight yet, t.i.tty!" said Huckaback, as he concluded reading it.

"No! But is there really? Do tell me, Hucky"----

"Why, first and foremost, how uncommon polite they are, (except that they haven't manners enough to spell my name right)"----

"Really--and so they are!" exclaimed t.i.tmouse, rather elatedly.

"And then, you see, there's another thing--if they'd meant to give the thing the go-by altogether, what could have been easier than to say so?--but they haven't said anything of the sort, so they don't _mean_ to give it all up!"

"Lord, Huck! what would I give for such a head as yours! What you say is quite true," said t.i.tmouse, still more cheerfully.

"To be sure, they do say there's an _obstacle_--an obstacle, you see--nay, it's obstacles, which is several, and that"---- t.i.tmouse's face fell.

"But they say again, that it's--it's--curse their big words--they say it's--to be got over in time."

"Well--that's something, isn't it?"

"To be sure it is; and a'n't anything better than nothing? But then, again, here's a stone in the other pocket--they say there's a _circ.u.mstance_!--don't you hate circ.u.mstances, t.i.tty?--I do."

"So do I!--What does it mean? I've often heard--isn't it a _thing_? And that may be--anything."

"Oh, there's a great dif--hem! And they go on to say it's happened since you was there"----

"Curse me, then, if that don't mean _you_, Huckaback!" interrupted t.i.tmouse, with returning anger.

"No, that can't be it; they said they'd no control over the circ.u.mstance;--now they _had_ over me; for they ordered me to the door, and I went; a'n't that so, t.i.tty?--Lord, how my eye _does_ smart, to be sure!"

"And don't I smart all over, inside and out, if it comes to that?"

inquired t.i.tmouse, dolefully.

"There's nothing particular in the rest of the letter--only uncommon civil, and saying if anything turns up you shall hear."

"_I_ could make that out myself--so there's nothing in that"--said t.i.tmouse, quickly.

"Well--if it _is_ all over--what a pity! Such things as we could have done, t.i.tty, if we'd got the thing--eh?"

t.i.tmouse groaned at this glimpse of the heaven he seemed shut out of forever.

"Can't you find anything--nothing at all comfortable-like, in the letter?" he inquired with a deep sigh.

Huckaback again took up the letter and spelled it over.

"Well," said he, striving to give himself an appearance of thinking, "there's something in it that, after all, I don't seem quite to get to the bottom of--they've seemingly taken a deal of pains with it!"

[And undoubtedly it _was_ a doc.u.ment which had been pretty well considered by its framers before being sent out; though, probably, they had hardly antic.i.p.ated its being so soon afterwards subjected to the scrutiny of such acute intellects as were now engaged upon it.]

"And then, again, you know they're lawyers; and do _they_ ever write anything that hasn't got more in it than anybody can find out? These gents that wrote this, they're a trick too keen for the thieves even--and how can _we_--hem!--but I wonder if that fat, old, bald-headed gent, with sharp eyes, was Mr. Quirk"----

"To be sure it was," interrupted t.i.tmouse, with a half shudder.

"Was it? Well, then, I'd advise Old Nick to look sharp before he tackles that old gent, that's all!"

"Give me Mr. Gammon for my money," said t.i.tmouse, sighing, "such an _uncommon_ gentlemanlike gent--he's quite taken to me"----

"Ah, that, I suppose, was him with the black velvet waistcoat, and pretty white hands! But _he_ can look stern, too, t.i.t! You should have seen him ring, when--hem!--But what was I saying about the letter? Don't you see they say they'll be sure to write if anything turns up?"

"So they do, to be sure! Well--I'd forgot that!" interrupted t.i.tmouse, brightening up.

"Then, isn't there their advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Flash_? They hadn't their eye on anything when they put it there, I dare say!--They can't get out of _that_, anyhow!"

"I begin to feel all of a sweat, Hucky; I'm sure there's something in the wind yet!" said t.i.tmouse, drawing nearer still to his comforter.

"And more than that--would they have said half they did to me last night"----

"Eh! hollo, by the way! I've not heard of what went on last night! So you went to 'em? Well--tell us all that happened--and nothing but the truth, be _sure_ you don't; come, t.i.tty!" said Huckaback, snuffing the candle, and then turning eagerly to his companion.

"Well--they'd such a number of queer-looking papers before them, some with old German-text writing, and others with zigzag marks--and they were so uncommon polite--they all three got up as I went in, and made me bows, one after the other, and said, 'Yours most obediently, Mr.

t.i.tmouse,' and a great many more such things."

"Well--and then?"

"Why, Hucky, so help me----! and 'pon my soul, that old gent, Mr. Quirk, told me"--t.i.tmouse's voice trembled at the recollection--"he says, 'Sir, you're the real owner of Ten Thousand a-year, and no mistake!'"

"Lawks!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Huckaback, opening wider and wider his eyes and ears as his friend went on.

"'And a t.i.tle--a _lord_, or something of that sort--and you've a great many country seats; and there's been 10,000 a-year saving up for you ever since you was born--and heaps of interest besides!'--'pon my soul he did!"

"Lord, t.i.t! you take my breath away," gasped Huckaback, his eyes fixed intently on his friend's face.

"Yes; and they said I might marry the most beautifulest woman that ever my eyes saw, for the asking."

"You'll forget poor Bob Huckaback, t.i.t!" murmured his friend, despondingly.

"Not I, Huckaback--if I get my rights, and you know how to behave yourself!"

"Have you been to Tag-rag's to-day, after hearing all this?"

[The thermometer seemed to have been here plunged out of hot water into cold--t.i.tmouse was down at zero in a trice.]

"Oh!--that's it! 'Tis all gone again! What a fool I am! We've clean forgot this cursed letter--and that leads me to the end of what took place last night. That cursed shop was what we split on!"

"Split on _the shop_! eh? What's the meaning of that?" inquired Huckaback, with eager anxiety.

"Why, that's the thing," continued t.i.tmouse, in a faltering tone, and with a depressed look--"That was what I wanted to know myself; for they said I'd better go back!! So I said, 'Gents,' said I, 'I'll be---- if I'll go back to the shop any more;' and I snapped my fingers at them--so! (for you know what a chap I am when my blood's up.) And they all turned gashly pale--they did, upon my life--you never saw anything like it! And one of them said then, in a humble way, 'Wouldn't I please to go back to the shop, just for a day or two, till things is got to rights a bit.' 'Not a day nor a minute!' says I, in an immense rage. 'We think you'd better, really,' said they. 'Then,' says I, 'if that's your plan, curse me if I won't cut with you all, and I'll employ some one else!' and--would you believe me?--out I went, bang! into the street!!"

"You _did_, t.i.t!!" echoed Huckaback, aghast.