Sir Walter Scott in his _Journal_ for 7th March 1828 tells us that when she returned to her party in the character of an old Scottish lady she deceived every one. ‘The prosing account she gave of her son, the antiquary, who found an auld wig in a slate quarry, was extremely ludicrous, and she puzzled the Professor of Agriculture with a merciless account of the succession of crops in the parks around her old mansion-house. No person to whom the secret was not entrusted had the least guess of an impostor, _except one shrewd young lady present_, _who observed the hand narrowly_, _and saw it was plumper than the age of the lady seemed to warrant_.’ In the _Daily Mail_ of 4th April 1912 there is an account of two girls who lived together, passing as husband and wife. The man with whom they lodged said: ‘The husband’s hands were so small and soft that both my wife and myself were suspicious.’ I ask the attention of readers to the manner in which Dickens refers to Datchery’s hands. I do not lay too much stress on these indications, but they deserve consideration. 1. We read in chapter xviii. about Datchery in the coffee-room of the Crozier, ‘as he stood with his back to the empty fireplace waiting for his fried sole, veal cutlet, and pint of sherry.’ (‘Empty’ was an afterthought on Dickens’s part.) Here we have Datchery keeping his hands out of view. 2. A little after, Datchery asks the waiter to take his hat down for a moment from the peg. If he had stretched out his own hand it might have been noticed. 3. Later in the same chapter, when Datchery meets Jasper and the Mayor, he does not shake hands with them. ‘“I beg pardon,” said Mr. Datchery, making a leg with his hat under his arm.’ Originally this was written ‘hat in hand.’ If he carried his hat under his arm, one hand would be buried in the hat. 4. Afterwards we read of Datchery following Jasper and the Mayor, ‘with his hat under his arm, and his shock of white hair streaming in the evening breeze.’ 5. When Datchery is talking to the opium woman, ‘he lounges along, like the chartered bore of the city, with his uncovered grey hair blowing about, and his purposeless hands rattling the loose money in the pockets of his trousers.’ His hands are thus out of sight. Immediately after we find him ‘still rattling his loose money,’ and again, ‘still rattling.’ 6. At last he begins to count out the sum demanded of him by the opium woman. ‘Greedily watching his hands, she continues to hold forth on the great example set him.’ Of course, she may merely be watching for the money in his hands, but there may be something more in it than this. Let it be noted that Dickens originally wrote, ‘Greedily watching him,’ and inserted ‘his hands’ later. 7. Immediately after ‘Mr. Datchery drops some money, stoops to pick it up.’ In all the scene with the opium woman he keeps his hands out of sight as much as possible, and when he does show them they strike the old woman.