"That's the very man, my child," responded Mr. Simon. "Thank you very much. Where shall I find him?" "I'll show you," returned Mattie. "Why couldn't he have said so before?" remarked Mr. Kitely to himself with indignation. "But it's just like them." By _them_ he meant clergymen in general. "What a fearful name--_Moloch_!" reflected Mr. Simon, as he followed Mattie up the court. He would have judged it a name of bad omen, had he not thought _omen_ rather a wicked word. The fact was, the German's name was Molken, a very innocent one, far too innocent for its owner, for it means only _whey_. Herr Molken was a _ne'er-do-weel_ student of Heidelberg, a clever fellow, if not a scholar, whose bad habits came to be too well known at home for his being able to indulge them there any longer, and who had taken refuge in London from certain disagreeable consequences which not unfrequently follow aberrant efforts to procure the means of gambling and general dissipation. Thomas had as yet spent so little time in his company, never giving more than a quarter of an hour or so to his lesson, that Molken had had no opportunity of influencing him in any way. But he was one of those who, the moment they make a new acquaintance, begin examining him for the sake of discovering his weak points, that they may get some hold of him. He measured his own strength or weakness by the number of persons of whom at any given time he had a hold capable of being turned to advantage in some way or other in the course of events. Of all dupes, one with some intellect and no principle, weakened by the trammels of a religious system with which he is at strife, and which therefore hangs like a millstone about his neck, impedes his every motion, and gives him up to the mercy of his enemy, is the most thorough prey to the pigeon-plucker; for such a one has no recuperative power, and the misery of his conscience makes him abject. Molken saw that Tom was clever, and he seemed to have some money--if he could get this hold of him in any way, it might be "to the welfare of his advantage."