"Why, Tit, I never see'd such a goose! That's it, depend upon it--it's the whole thing! That's what they're driving at, in the note!--Why, Tit, where _was_ your wits? D' ye think such gents as them--great lawyers, too--will work for nothing?--You must write at once and tell them you will come down handsome--say a couple of hundreds, besides expenses--Gad! 'twill set you on your pins again, Titty!--Rot me! now I think of it, if I didn't dream last night that you was a Member of Parliament or something of that sort." "A member of Parliament! And so I shall, if all this turns up well--I shall be _that_ at least!" replied Titmouse, exultingly. "You see if my dream don't come true! You see, Titty, I'm _always_ a-thinking of you, day and night. Never was two fellows that was such close friends as we was from the very beginning of knowing each other!" [They had been acquainted with each other about half a year.] "Hucky, what a cruel scamp I was to behave to you in the way I did--curse me, if I couldn't cry to see your eye bunged up in that way!" "Pho! dear Titty, I knew you loved me all the while"--whined Huckaback, "and meant no harm; you wasn't yourself when you did it--and besides, I deserved ten times more! If you had killed me I should have liked you as much as ever!" "Give us your hand, Hucky! Let's forgive one another!" cried Titmouse, excitedly; and their hands were quickly locked together. "If we don't mismanage the thing, we shall be all right yet, Titty; but you won't do anything without speaking to _me_ first--will you, Titty?" "The thoughts of it all going right again is enough to set me wild, Hucky--But what shall we do to set the thing going again?" "_Quarter past one!_" quivered the voice of the paralytic watchman beneath, startling the friends out of their exciting colloquy; his warning being at the same time silently seconded by the long-wicked candle, burning within half an inch of its socket. They hastily agreed that Titmouse should immediately write to Messrs. Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, a proper [_i. e._ a most abject] letter, solemnly pledging himself to obey their injunctions in everything for the future, and offering them a handsome reward for their exertions, if successful. "Well--good-night, Huck! good-night," said Titmouse, rising. "I'm not the least sleepy--I sha'n't sleep a wink all night long! I shall sit up to write my letter--you haven't got a sheet of paper here, by the way?--I've used all mine." [That was, he had, some months before, bought a sheet to write a letter, and had so used it.] Huckaback produced a sheet, somewhat crumpled, from a drawer. "I'd give a hundred if I had them!" said he; "I sha'n't care a straw for the hiding I've got to-night--though I'm a _leetle_ sore after it, too--and what the deuce am I to say to-morrow to Messrs. Diaper"---- "Oh, you can't hardly be at a loss for a lie that'll suit _them_, surely!--So good-night, Hucky--good-night!"