"I never knew it," he said; "I will run up and have a yarn with him. I thought he wasn't expected till to-morrow at the earliest?" "Nor he was, Mr. Lightmark. But he travelled right through from Italy, and got to London late last night. He slept at the Great Eastern, and I went up to him in the City this morning. He hasn't been here more than half an hour." "Nobody told me," said Lightmark. "Gad! I am glad. I will take him up the picture. Will you carry the other traps into the house, Bullen?" He packed them up, and then stood a trifle irresolutely, his hand feeling over the coins in his pocket. Presently he produced two of them, a sovereign and a shilling. "By the way, Bullen!" he said, "there is a little function common in your trade, the gift of a new hat. It costs a guinea, I am told; though judging from the general appearance of longshoremen, the result seems a little inadequate. Bullen, we are pretty old friends now, and I expect I shall not be down here so often just at present. Allow me--to give you a new hat." The foreman's huge fist closed on the artist's slender one. "Thank you, sir! You are such a facetious gentleman. You may depend upon me." "I do," said Lightmark, with a sudden lapse into seriousness, and frowning a little. If something had cast a shadow over the artist for the moment he must have had a faculty of quick recovery, for there was certainly no shade of constraint upon his handsome face when a minute later he made his way up the balcony steps and into the office labelled "Private," and, depositing his canvas upon the floor, treated his friend to a prolonged handshaking. "My dear Dick!" said Rainham, "this is a pleasant surprise. I had not the remotest notion you were here." "I thought you were at Bordighera, till Bullen told me of your arrival ten minutes ago," said Lightmark, with a frank laugh. "And how well----" Rainham held up his hand--a very white, nervous hand with one ring of quaint pattern on the forefinger--deprecatingly. "My dear fellow, I know exactly what you are going to say. Don't be conventional--don't say it. I have a fraudulent countenance if I do look well; and I don't, and I am not. I am as bad as I ever was." "Well, come now, Rainham, at any rate you are no worse." "Oh, I am no worse!" admitted the dry dock proprietor. "But, then, I could not afford to be much worse. However, my health is a subject which palls on me after a time. Tell me about yourself."