"You, Gammon, are in your prime--scarce even that--but I am growing old"----tears appeared to glisten in the old gentleman's eyes; Gammon, looking much moved, shook him cordially by the hand in silence, wondering what upon earth was coming next. "Yes;--old Caleb Quirk's day is drawing to a close--I feel it, Gammon, I feel it! But I shall leave behind me--a--a--child--an only daughter, Gammon;" that gentleman gazed at the speaker with an expression of respectful sympathy;--"Dora: I don't think you can have known Dora so long, Gammon, without feeling a _leetle_ interest in her!" Here Gammon's color mounted rapidly; and he looked with feelings of a novel description at his senior partner. Could it be possible that old Quirk wished to bring about a match between his daughter and Mr. Gammon? That gentleman's thoughts were for a moment confused. All he could do was to bow with an earnest--an anxious--a deprecating air; and Mr. Quirk, rather hastily, proceeded,--"and when I assure you, Gammon, that it is in your power to make an old friend and his only daughter happy and proud,"--Gammon began to draw his breath hurriedly, and to look more and more apprehensively at his senior partner,--"in short, my dear friend Gammon, let me out with it at once--my daughter's over head and ears in love with Titmouse! She is, so help me Heaven!" ["Whew!" thought Gammon, suddenly and infinitely relieved.] "Ah, my dear sir, is that all?" he exclaimed, and shook Mr. Quirk cordially by the hand,--"at length you have made a friend of me indeed! But, to tell you the truth, I have long suspected as much; I have indeed!" "Have you really? Hang me if anything can escape your lynx's eyes!--Well! there _is_ no accounting for tastes, is there?--especially among the women? Poor Dora's quite lost her heart--quite--she has--so help me Heaven!" continued Mr. Quirk, energetically. "Well, my dear sir, and why this _surprise_?" inquired Gammon, earnestly. "I consider Titmouse to be a very handsome young fellow; and that he is already rapidly acquiring very gentlemanly manners; and as to his _fortune_--really--when one thinks of the thing--it would be most desirable to bring it about! Indeed, the sooner his heart's fixed, and his word's pledged, the better--for you must of course be aware that there will be many schemers on the look-out to entrap his frank and inexperienced nature--look, for instance, at Tag-rag." "Eugh!" exclaimed Mr. Quirk, with a sudden motion of sickening disgust--"the old beast! I smoked him long ago! Now, _that_ I call villany, Gammon; infernal villany! Don't you?" "Indeed, indeed, Mr. Quirk, I do; I quite agree with you! Upon my honor, I think it is a part of even _my_ duty towards our confiding and inexperienced client, if possible, to protect him against such infamous designs."