And all the time Joe’s voice was running on with arguments, the form of which, simple and subtle and couched in that language of the rough which is always more or less picturesque, amused his companion much. Joe had penetrated sufficiently into the mind of his mate to know how to address him. And that mind began to work upon the matter, with the amusing addition of the name of Spender and Diggs thrown in, and a great deal of pleasurable occupation in a question entirely characteristic and full of the difficulties he loved. The result was that March appeared in the morning as the landlady had said, and spent a short time, but only a very short time in John’s sitting-room. The copy was completed, carefully folded up, and put in a large envelope. All John’s notes, the originals, were scrupulously left in their place, and in perfect order. For in some points his conscience was of scrupulous nicety, and John’s notes were certainly his own and not to be tampered with. As he was going out with the large envelope in his breast pocket, John’s landlady appeared with the remonstrance which had been on her lips for some days. ‘You, sir, I’ve got no objections--a gentleman that’s pleasant spoken and respectable even if he ain’t my lodger, but only a friend, that’s a different thing:---- but your---- that man----’ ‘My servant?’ said March, with a quick sense of the comicality of the situation. ‘Well, sir,’ said the woman, with hesitation; ‘I wouldn’t keep on a man like that in my service if I was you.’ ‘He is not as bad as he seems,’ the philosopher said, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘but I foresaw your objections, and you shall never see him more.’ ‘If that’s so, of course, there isn’t another word to be said.’ ‘That’s so; you may calculate upon it as a certainty,’ the pleasant spoken gentleman said; and with a wave of his hand and a chuckle of enjoyment he went away. The events thus described will explain the scene which John to his consternation and amazement encountered when he stepped into Mr. William’s room at the office, and found himself confronted by both members of the firm. CHAPTER III. JOHN ON HIS TRIAL. Both the partners were together in Mr. William’s room. They had been having some sort of a consultation, it was evident, and both looked very grave. When John walked in at his ease, though a little anxious, they both turned round upon him with very serious faces--the younger man with a grieved air, the elder one rigid and solemn, like a judge before whom a criminal has appeared, whose conviction has been pre-accomplished, and who has come up for judgment. Mr. William Barrett had the air of hoping that some more evidence might be discovered which would possibly exonerate the accused, but his father’s face showed no such hope. On the contrary, something of the ‘I always knew how it would be’ was in his look, as he turned sharply round at the opening of the door.