the determination, an hour or so before Mr. Aubrey's most unexpected visit, to be at once prepared with the necessary means for setting in motion legal proceedings for the recovery of the arrear of mesne profits. But we are keeping Mr. Aubrey waiting, all this while, in the outer office. "Have I the honor to address Mr. Gammon?" commenced Mr. Aubrey, courteously, on being shown into the room--not announced by name, but only as "_a gentleman_"--where Gammon sat busily engaged writing out the "Instructions" for framing the rack on which it was designed to extend his unconscious visitor! "Sir, my name _is_ Gammon," he replied, coloring a little--and rising, with an expression of very great surprise--"I believe I have the honor of seeing Mr. Aubrey?--I beg you will allow me to offer you a chair"--he continued with forced calmness of manner, placing one as far distant as was possible from the table, and, to make assurance doubly sure, seating himself between Mr. Aubrey and the table; expecting to hear his visitor at once open the subject of their bill, which they had so recently sent in. "Will you suffer me, Mr. Aubrey," commenced Gammon, with a bland and subdued air, not fulsome, but extremely deferential, "before entering on any business which may have brought you here, to express deep and sincere sympathy with your sufferings, and my _personal_ regret at the share we have had in the proceedings which have ended so adversely for your interests? But our duty as professional men, Mr. Aubrey, is often as plain as painful!" "I feel obliged, sir," said Mr. Aubrey, with a sigh, "for your kind expressions of sympathy--but I cannot for a moment conceive any apology necessary. Neither I, nor my advisers, that I am aware of, have ever had cause to complain of harsh or unprofessional treatment on your part. Your proceedings certainly came upon me--upon all of us--like a thunder-stroke," said Mr. Aubrey, with a little emotion. "I trust that you have given me credit, Mr. Gammon, for offering no vexatious or unconscientious obstacles." "Oh, Mr. Aubrey! on the contrary, I am at a loss for words to express my sense of your straightforward and high-minded conduct; and have several times intimated my sentiments on that subject to Messrs. Runnington"--Mr. Aubrey bowed--"and again I anxiously beg that you will give me credit for feeling the profoundest sympathy"--he paused, as if from emotion; and such might well have been excited, in any person of ordinary feeling, by the appearance of Mr. Aubrey--calm and melancholy--his features full of anxiety and exhaustion, and his figure, naturally slender, evidently somewhat emaciated. ["I wonder," thought Gammon, "whether he has any _insurances on his life_!--He certainly has _rather_ a consumptive look--I should like to ascertain the fact--and in what office--and to what extent."]