“Yes, Sir Cradock; to be sure, Sir Cradock; how my old head is failing me! Very neglectful of me never to have brought the bag to–day.” Then he turned round suddenly at the door, to which he had been hobbling. “Perhaps youʼd look at the date, Sir Cradock, of the paper in your hand, sir.” “Yesterdayʼs paper, of course, Hogstaff. What has that to do with it?” “Oh, nothing, sir, nothing, of course. Only I thought it might have comed in the letter–bag. Perhaps it never does, Sir Cradock; you knows best, as you takes it out.” Here old Job gave a quiet chuckle, and added, as if to himself, “No, of course, it couldnʼt have come in the letter–bag this morning, or master would never have blowed me up for not bringing him the bag, as nobody else got a key to it!” “How stupid of me, to be sure, how excessively stupid!” exclaimed Sir Cradock, with a sigh; “of course I had the bag, a full hour ago; and there was nothing in it but this paper. Job, I beg your pardon.” “And I hope itʼs good news youʼve got there, Sir Cradock, and no cases of starvation; no one found dead in the streets, I hopes, or drownded in the Serpentine. Anyhow, thereʼs a many births, I see, and a deal too many. Children be now such a plenty nobody care about them.” “Job, you quite forget yourself,” said his master, very grandly; but there came a long sigh after it, and Job was not daunted easily. “And, if I do, Sir Cradock Nowell, Iʼd sooner forget myself than my children.” Sir Cradock was very angry, or was trying to feel that he ought to be so, when a heavy tread, quite unmistakable, and yet not so firm as it used to be, shook the Minton tiles of the passage. That step used to cry to the echoes, “Make way; a man of vigour and force is coming.” Now all it said was, “Here I go, and am not in a mood to be meddled with.” “Come in,” said Sir Cradock, fidgeting, and pretending to be up for an egg, as Mr. Garnet gave two great thumps on the panel of the door. Small as the room was, Job Hogstaff managed to be too late to let him in. Bull Garnet first flung his great eyes on the butler; he had no idea of fellows skulking their duty. Old Hogstaff, who looked upon Garnet as no more than an upper servant, gazed back with especial obtuseness, and waved his napkin cleverly. “Please to put that mat straight again, Mr. Garnet. You kicked it askew, as you came in. And our master canʼt abide things set crooked.” To Jobʼs disappointment and wonder, Bull Garnet stepped back very quietly, stooped down, and replaced the sheepskin. “Hogstaff, leave the room this moment,” shouted Sir Cradock, wrathfully; and Job hobbled away to brag how he had pulled Muster Garnet down a peg. “Now, Garnet, take my easy–chair. Will you have a cup of coffee after your early walk?” “No, thank you. I have breakfasted three hours and a half ago. In our position of life, we must be up early, Sir Cradock Nowell.”