But Mrs.Clover found amusement in the state of things, whereas Mr.Sparkes grew more despondent the more he talked, and always added with a doleful self-reproach: "If I'd been half a man I should have left.

They'd have taken me on at Simpkin's, I know they would, or at the Old City Chop House, if I'd waited for a vacancy.

Who'd take me on now?
Why, they'd throw it in my face that I came from Chaffey's, and I shouldn't have half a word to say for myself." It was very seldom that he received a written invitation from his sister-in-law, but he heard from her in these hot days of June that she particularly wished to see him as soon as possible.

The message he thought, must have some reference to Mrs.Clover's husband, whose reappearance at any moment would have been no great surprise, even after an absence of six years.

Mr.Sparkes had a strong objection to mysterious persons; he was all for peace and comfort in a familiar routine, and for his own part had often hoped that the man Clover was by this time dead and buried.