 peal of distant thunder reverberated in the air, and the rain commenced
pouring violently down.
    »The place should be somewhere here,« said Bumble, consulting a scrap of
paper he held in his hand.
    »Halloa there!« cried a voice from above.
    Following the sound, Mr. Bumble raised his head, and descried a man looking
out of a door, breast-high, on the second story.
    »Stand still, a minute,« cried the voice; »I'll be with you directly.« With
which the head disappeared, and the door closed.
    »Is that the man?« asked Mr. Bumble's good lady.
    Mr. Bumble nodded in the affirmative.
    »Then, mind what I told you,« said the matron: »and be careful to say as
little as you can, or you'll betray us at once.«
    Mr. Bumble, who had eyed the building with very rueful looks, was apparently
about to express some doubts relative, to the advisability of proceeding any
further with the enterprise just then, when he was prevented by the appearance
of Monks: who opened a small door, near which they stood, and beckoned them
inwards.
    »Come in!« he cried impatiently, stamping his foot upon the ground. »Don't
keep me here!«
    The woman, who had hesitated at first, walked boldly in, without any other
invitation. Mr. Bumble, who was ashamed or afraid to lag behind, followed:
obviously very ill at ease and with scarcely any of that remarkable dignity
which was usually his chief characteristic.
    »What the devil made you stand lingering there, in the wet?« said Monks,
turning round, and addressing Bumble, after he had bolted the door behind them.
    »We - we were only cooling ourselves,« stammered Bumble, looking
apprehensively about him.
    »Cooling yourselves!« retorted Monks. »Not all the rain that ever fell, or
ever will fall, will put as much of hell's fire out, as a man can carry about
with him. You won't cool yourselves so easily; don't think it!«
    With this agreeable speech, Monks turned short upon the matron, and bent his
gaze upon her, till even she, who was not easily cowed, was fain to withdraw her
eyes, and turn them towards the ground.
    »This is the woman, is it?« demanded Monks.
    »Hem! That is the woman,« replied Mr. Bumble, mindful of his wife's
