you know, if the widow carries on the business,« said Grossby, »there
's no reason why we shouldn't get it all, eh?«
    »There ain't two that can make clothes for nothing, and make a profit out of
it,« said Kilne.
    »That young chap in Portugal,« added Barnes, »he won't take to tailoring
when he comes home. D' ye think he will?«
    Kilne muttered: »Can't say!« and Grossby, a kindly creature in his way,
albeit a creditor, reverting to the first subject of their discourse,
ejaculated, »But what a one he was! - eh?«
    »Fine! - to look on,« Kilne assented.
    »Well, he was like a Marquis,« said Barnes.
    Here the three regarded each other, and laughed, though not loudly. They
instantly checked that unseemliness, and Kilne, as one who rises from the depths
of a calculation with the sum in his head, spoke quite in a different voice:
    »Well, what do you say, gentlemen? shall we adjourn? No use standing here.«
    By the invitation to adjourn, it was well understood by the committee Kilne
addressed, that they were invited to pass his threshold, and partake of a
morning draught. Barnes, the butcher, had no objection whatever, and if Grossby,
a man of milder make, entertained any, the occasion and common interests to be
discussed, advised him to waive them. In single file these mourners entered the
publican's house, where Kilne, after summoning them from behind the bar, on the
important question, what it should be? and receiving, first, perfect
acquiescence in his views as to what it should be, and then feeble suggestions
of the drink best befitting that early hour and the speaker's particular
constitution, poured out a toothful to each, and one to himself.
    »Here 's to him, poor fellow!« said Kilne; and was deliberately echoed
twice.
    »Now, it wasn't that,« Kilne pursued, pointing to the bottle in the midst of
a smacking of lips, »that wasn't what got him into difficulties. It was
expensive luckshries. It was being above his condition. Horses! What 's a
tradesman got to do with horses? Unless he 's retired! Then he 's a gentleman,
and can do as he likes. It 's no use trying to be a gentleman if you can't pay
for