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glowered upon the policeman as he passed him; for Cooney had a contempt for the force, but a wholesome dread of the law, which kept a moderately sharp eye upon dealers in the less precious metals. Under the generic term "door-handle," it was marvellous the quantity of brass which found its way to the premises of Cooney; pewter being a welcome commodity, many a flattened pint-pot was in Cooney's meltingpot before mine host had missed it; mean-looking lads, with hunger in their eyes, had deposited plate with other initials than their own, and a crest to which they had no claim, upon it, with Cooney, before now; and if at a time of pecuniary pressure, a gentleman in a velveteen coat, a greasy cap, and a cropped head, required money for an article of jewelry or a gold watch, Cooney was not the man to ask impertinent questions; for, as we have before observed, he was of a reserved disposition, and spoke very little either in business or out of it. Coarse-minded persons, who are in the habit of calling a spade a spade, would have described Cooney as a "fence," or receiver of stolen goods; but Mr. Ledbitter, not being a coarse-minded person, was content to believe in the legend over the shop-window; and so he saluted Mr. Cooney as affably as he would have done Swan and Edgar, had he known those eminent tradesmen, and seen them smoking long pipes at the corner of Piccadilly.

The marine-store dealer jerked his head in the direction of the stairs at the back of his shop, as a sign that his visitor might go up; and up the visitor did go, with a gentle and almost cat-like softness of tread. Casually taking his lack-lustre eye from the form of his opposite neighbour, Cooney's glance lighted upon the form of a closely-veiled female, who was apparently absorbed in the interesting rhymes which invited all who might be troubled with a superfluity of bones, or rags, or grease, or old metal, to try the liberal proprietor of the present establishment. These poetic effusions were mostly surmounted by rude coloured woodcuts of a comic nature, representing ladies and gentlemen originally in service, but, in consequence of a few visits to Cooney, now enabled to dress in fashionable and even dazzling attire, and who were mutually expatiating on the magnificent chance which had directed them to the Golconda in question. As people were frequently apt to come to Cooney's in a furtive, not to say suspicious, manner, and occasionally required a little coaxing before disclosing the real object of their visit, the marine-store dealer at once set down the young woman as a lady's-maid, who had come across some valuable trifles by one of those unaccountable accidents which will happen in the best-regulated families; and as such lucky finders were very often unwilling to come directly to the point, Cooney winked one of his big pale eyes at her, and remarked in a gruff undertone,

"Got any think?"

The veiled damsel advanced, and, looking into the shop to see that Ledbitter was not present, walked in, Cooney following with much rapidity.

"Has that man been here before ?" asked Felicia Penrose.

Cooney's jaw dropped. Could the visitor be some one who suspected Ledbitter of visits to the marine-stores for felonious purposes? The safest thing to do, determined Coney, was to speak the truth. It was unprofessional; but there was no help for it.

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Often; comes to a sick lodger of mine; what of it?"

"A sick lodger? Where does your lodger live? up there?" And Felicia shuddered as she looked at the rickety stairs.

Cooney nodded.

"Who pays for the lodger?" asked Felicia.

"Come, you ain't at all inquisitive, you ain't!" replied Cooney, with a half grin.

"I don't mean him any harm; I only want to know one or two matters about him; and I'll pay you if you'll let me see him for a moment."

Cooney stared at his visitor. He had heard of female detectives, and he felt uncomfortable. He caught sight of the money in Felicia's hand, and felt more so. Felicia carried a porte-monnaie, and wore wellfitting green-kid gloves, and was very genteel and mincing. There was no imagination in Cooney; no idea that there might be something mysteriously romantic in the matter; that possibly the lodger might be of noble family, though disowned by his relations; none of the vague notions that would certainly have suggested themselves to the mind of Mrs. Cooney, had there been such a person, came across that of the marine-store dealer. He was not accustomed to seek for motives beneath the surface, and his one line of policy through life was to keep on the right side of the hedge in his business, and deny every thing unless he was paid higher terms to speak out. His motto was, that silence was golden; and that the melting-pot, like charity, covered a multitude of sins. Here was a young lady offering him something to see somebody. If somebody got into trouble, that was his own look-out; and as Felicia produced a sovereign, the marine-store dealer settled that somebody should be seen.

The rickety stairs creaked so beneath her tread that Felicia was afraid she might be seen; but, in order to avoid the possibility of discovery, the artful Cooney went before her, and, entering his lodger's room, drew Ledbitter aside, and spoke to him for some moments at the window. The lodger's face was turned towards where Felicia stood, and through the space between the wall and the door she saw him plainly. Having looked at him long enough to feel assured she could describe his appearance correctly, Miss Penrose stepped down into the shop in a gingerly manner, and Cooney very shortly followed her. He had, with business-like forethought, secured the sovereign before going up-stairs; and so there was nothing further for him to do but to nod a "good evening" at his visitor, who passed out of the shop and up the crowded street very hurriedly, and was soon lost to the gaze of the marine-store dealer.

"Well, well, well!" exclaimed Mrs. Gaunt impatiently, as Felicia entered the housekeeper's room.

"Well, mem, I followed Mr. Ledbitter to a dreadful marine-store shop in a horrid street by the Seven Dials, and I got a peep of the person as he goes to see; such a awful-looking man, with a great broad face, and a red beard,-leastways not a beard, but he have not shaved lately, and heavy eyebrows, tremenjious heavy eyebrows, and something odd with one eye; not exactly a squint, but a sort of a cast, and-Good 'evans, Mrs. Gaunt, how pale you are!"

Mrs. Gaunt was pale; every trace of colour had vanished from her countenance, and there was a visible tremor in her bloodless lips. Her chest heaved rapidly, and her large hand clasped the back of the chair she sat on in a powerful and most unfeminine grasp. Gradually there broke over her countenance a wild smile, in which there was something more terrible than her lowering frown; but it soon passed from her face, and she ground her teeth in undisguised fury, as she rose and paced the room with great manly strides. Suddenly stopping in her walk, she turned abruptly to Felicia, and told her to leave her; but as the girl was going from the room, the housekeeper held her by the arm, and patted her approvingly on the head.

"Felicia, you are a most excellent young woman; don't mind my temper; I've had a great deal of worry in the course of my life,—a very great deal indeed," said Mrs. Gaunt, in a voice less harsh than usual.

Wants, Wishes, and Whims.

WE may almost say that these three are brothers, for they are all of analogous genus, rather doubtful respectability, and, in general, bearing what a North-countryman would call a "ne'er-do-weel" sort of character.

Taking them, however, in the abstract, in their separate identities, we have not so much to say against them; for truly our wants may be many and real, our wishes earnest and virtuous, and our whims few and innocent.

But, looking at them in a more comprehensive manner, and with a wider scope extending our observations over the broad field of human intelligence, we soon ascertain that these capricious individuals play no inconsiderable part on the great stage of worldly affairs, exerting a powerful influence for good or evil over the whole family of man.

Characters there certainly are, who, with almost inflexible resolution of purpose and zealous prosecution of duty, or from the engrossing impulses of genius, seem to pay comparatively but little heed to their urgent appeals, or more sly insinuations; but these are the exception, not the rule.

Take the world at large, and we shall see how great a bias their influence produces, both on individual character and collective social communities.

Accustomed as we are to view man in the artificial state of highlycivilised society, we can barely comprehend how few of what we call almost the necessaries of life are essential to his comfort in a more primitive state.

His Wants ever seem to keep pace with, or rather go ahead of, the manifold appliances of science and art, which, in some way or other, tend to alleviate them; and he looks upon, with cool indifference, and considers really quite necessary to his proper comfort, all those conveniences of life which some thousands of years have brought to their present nearness to perfection. Now, for his intellectual gratification, as he lounges in his easy-chair by his own fireside, he can have brought to him much of the collective wisdom of all the generations of men since the days of father Adam.

He can at will follow the travellers of every age; and while his thermometer stands at the comfortable temperature of sixty degrees, he can go with Captains Ross and Penny in safety over the Arctic circle, and explore the North-west passage in dressing-gown and slippers; or he can sip his claret, while he mentally follows the long string of worn-out camels as they wearily pursue their monotonous course, while the blinding sun o'erhead, the dazzling glare of hot white sand,

and the empty water-skins are enough to madden the boldest spirit who leads those thirsty souls.

Daily he calls to his aid the developed thoughts of wiser men, and makes use of mechanical aids, commercial facilities, and domestic conveniences which his forefathers, in their simplicity, would have thought it preposterous to dream of attaining; and yet how he goes on grumbling! Books are dull and stupid, science is a bore, travelling by express is slow work, and even the telegraph-message he despatched just now is a long while in being answered!

Half-an-hour by his chronometer-scapement, compensating-balance, dead-beat, centre-second, stop watch-which goes with such wonderful accuracy that were old Time only to halt for half a moment to pull a thorn out of his foot, it would most assuredly find him out-and yet no reply to that simple question to his man of business in Edinburgh, which he addressed from London all that while ago: shame!

We cannot adequately judge of the endless appliances of the present age in this and other neighbouring countries unless we revert to olden times, or turn to those nomad tribes of men who still retain most of their pristine simplicity.

How few and simple are the requirements of the Arabs of the desert, wandering from place to place, just as they did in the days of early Bible history, when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob journeyed as strangers through the land of promise!

To the Bedouin Arab the black goatskin tent, the few household goods contained therein, and his dear fleet mare, which can carry the whole lot away on her back, are all he wants in the way of creature comforts; and, wild in his love of unhampered freedom, he disdains the slave of luxury who craves for more. If we turn to the wilds of North America and take a peep into the wigwam of the native Indian-though such indeed are now rarely to be met with preserving their savage dignity and independence-we shall find that his squaw possesses but a very meagre supply of domestic comforts wherewith to satisfy the stoical brave, her exacting lord and master, when he returns weary from the chase.

They even deem it infra dig. and a sure mark of effeminacy to surround themselves with the luxuries of modern times, though they do not scruple to taste the white man's "fire-water," or to obtain, by fair or foul means, his rifle and ammunition.

It is enough to draw a tear of sympathy from the civilised European, to note how these savages, under the white man's tuition, eagerly adopt all his vices, but derive no moral benefit from the social contact. Despising the useful arts and agricultural appliances they see him possess, they seize with avidity his more deadly weapons of destruction; brandy and gunpowder aiding strongly to extirpate their race.

Travelling farther north,-to Siberia, Iceland, the coast of Norway, -if we look into the rude huts or snow-cabins of the Laps and Fins, we

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