"Oh, unfathomable Gammon!" he exclaimed at length, aloud, laying down the paper, and sinking into his chair. "Surely I am the weakest, or you the subtlest of mankind!" He turned over in his thoughts everything that he could recollect of Gammon's conduct, from the first moment that they had met. He felt completely baffled and bewildered. Again he perused the report of the proceedings in the King's Bench--and would have again relapsed into thought; but his eye happened to alight on two or three notes lying on his table, where they had been placed by Fanny, having come in his absence. He opened the first listlessly, not knowing the handwriting; but, on unfolding it, he started violently on recognizing that of Gammon, within; and with mingled wonder and fear, read as follows:-- _"Thavies' Inn._ "DEAR SIR,--Heaven only knows when or where these hasty lines will find you. I am forced to address them to Vivian Street, being in total ignorance of your intended movements. If you have not taken my advice, and withdrawn from the kingdom, I know not what grievous indignity may not have befallen you. You may have been torn from your family, and now incarcerated in prison, the victim of a most cruel and inveterate rapacity. My conscience bears me witness that I can say--I can do--no more for you. I am grossly misrepresented--I am insulted, by having base and sinister motives attributed to me, for my conduct towards you--for my anxious and repeated interference on your behalf. In the _Morning Growl_ of to-day you will probably see--if you have not already seen--the report of some proceedings against me, yesterday, in the Court of King's Bench. It may apprise you of _the last_ desperate stand I have made for you. It is with bitter regret--it is with a feeling of deep indignation, that I tell you I am unable to fulfil my solemn, my deliberate, my repeated promise to you concerning the two promissory notes which you deposited with me, in implicit reliance on my honor. Alas! you must prepare for the worst! Mr. Titmouse and his new adviser can have, of course, but _one object_ in requiring the surrender of the two promissory notes, which I have already been compelled to give up, under peril of an attachment for contempt of court. I have strained, God knows! every nerve on your behalf; have all but fatally quarrelled with Mr. Titmouse, and with my partners; and I stand in some measure compromised, by the recent proceedings, before the profession and the public--and _all in vain_! Yet, once more--if you are not blinded and infatuated beyond all example or belief--I implore you, in the name of Heaven--by every consideration that should influence a man of honor and of feeling--fly!--lose not a second after