"Then, isn't there their advertisement in the _Flash_? They hadn't their eye on anything when they put it there, I dare say!--They can't get out of _that_, anyhow!" "I begin to feel all of a sweat, Hucky; I'm sure there's something in the wind yet!" said Titmouse, drawing nearer still to his comforter. "And more than that--would they have said half they did to me last night"---- "Eh! hollo, by the way! I've not heard of what went on last night! So you went to 'em? Well--tell us all that happened--and nothing but the truth, be _sure_ you don't; come, Titty!" said Huckaback, snuffing the candle, and then turning eagerly to his companion. "Well--they'd such a number of queer-looking papers before them, some with old German-text writing, and others with zigzag marks--and they were so uncommon polite--they all three got up as I went in, and made me bows, one after the other, and said, 'Yours most obediently, Mr. Titmouse,' and a great many more such things." "Well--and then?" "Why, Hucky, so help me----! and 'pon my soul, that old gent, Mr. Quirk, told me"--Titmouse's voice trembled at the recollection--"he says, 'Sir, you're the real owner of Ten Thousand a-year, and no mistake!'" "Lawks!" ejaculated Huckaback, opening wider and wider his eyes and ears as his friend went on. "'And a title--a _lord_, or something of that sort--and you've a great many country seats; and there's been £10,000 a-year saving up for you ever since you was born--and heaps of interest besides!'--'pon my soul he did!" "Lord, Tit! you take my breath away," gasped Huckaback, his eyes fixed intently on his friend's face. "Yes; and they said I might marry the most beautifulest woman that ever my eyes saw, for the asking." "You'll forget poor Bob Huckaback, Tit!" murmured his friend, despondingly. "Not I, Huckaback--if I get my rights, and you know how to behave yourself!" "Have you been to Tag-rag's to-day, after hearing all this?" [The thermometer seemed to have been here plunged out of hot water into cold--Titmouse was down at zero in a trice.] "Oh!--that's it! 'Tis all gone again! What a fool I am! We've clean forgot this cursed letter--and that leads me to the end of what took place last night. That cursed shop was what we split on!" "Split on _the shop_! eh? What's the meaning of that?" inquired Huckaback, with eager anxiety.