As he bent his steps towards Saffron Hill, he reflected rather anxiously on several matters which had occurred to him during the interview which I have just described. On reaching the office, he was presently closeted with Mr. Quirk, to whom, first and foremost, he exhibited and delivered the documents to which he had obtained Titmouse's signature, and which, the reader will allow me to assure him, were of a somewhat different texture from a certain legal instrument or security which I laid before him some little time ago. "Now, Gammon," said the old gentleman, as soon as he had locked up in his safe the above-mentioned documents--"Now, Gammon, I think we may be up and at 'em; load our guns, and blaze away," and he rubbed his hands. "Perhaps so, Mr. Quirk," replied Gammon; "but we must, for no earthly consideration, be premature in our operations! Let me, by the way, tell you one or two little matters that have just happened to Titmouse!"--Then he told Mr. Quirk of the effects which had followed the use of the potent Cyanochaitanthropopoion, at which old Quirk almost laughed himself into fits. When, however, Gammon, with a serious air, mentioned the name of Miss Tag-rag, and his grave suspicions concerning her, Quirk bounced up out of his chair, almost startling Gammon out of _his_. If Mr. Quirk had just been told that his banker had broken, he could scarce have shown more emotion. The fact was, that he, too, had a DAUGHTER--an only child--Miss Quirk--whom he had destined to become Mrs. Titmouse.