 you gleaned, or
heard, or saw, when you served me, the world knows and magnifies already. You
could tell it nothing that would surprise it, unless, indeed, it redounded to my
credit or honor, and then it would scout you for a liar. And yet I don't find
business slack, or clients scrupulous. Quite the contrary. I am reviled or
threatened every day by one man or another,« said Ralph; »but things roll on
just the same, and I don't grow poorer either.«
    »I neither revile nor threaten,« rejoined the man. »I can tell you of what
you have lost by my act, what I only can restore, and what, if I die without
restoring, dies with me, and never can be regained.«
    »I tell my money pretty accurately, and generally keep it in my own
custody,« said Ralph. »I look sharply after most men that I deal with, and most
of all I looked sharply after you. You are welcome to all you have kept from
me.«
    »Are those of your own name dear to you?« said the man emphatically. »If
they are -«
    »They are not,« returned Ralph, exasperated at this perseverance, and the
thought of Nicholas, which the last question awakened. »They are not. If you had
come as a common beggar, I might have thrown a sixpence to you in remembrance of
the clever knave you used to be; but since you try to palm these stale tricks
upon one you might have known better, I'll not part with a halfpenny - nor would
I to save you from rotting. And remember this, 'scape-gallows,« said Ralph,
menacing him with his hand, »that if we meet again, and you so much as notice me
by one begging gesture, you shall see the inside of a jail once more, and
tighten this hold upon me in intervals of the hard labour that vagabonds are put
to. There's my answer to your trash. Take it.«
    With a disdainful scowl at the object of his anger, who met his eye but
uttered not a word, Ralph walked away at his usual pace, without manifesting the
slightest curiosity to see what became of his late companion, or indeed once
looking behind him. The man remained on the same spot with his eyes fixed upon
his retreating figure until it was lost to view, and then drawing his arms about
his chest, as if the damp and lack of food
