"Agreed!" I cried, and then the rest of the night was spent--a very short night, by the way--in examining the various parts of the little model, Hallett seeming to give himself fresh ideas for improvements as he explained the reason for each wheel and spindle, and told me of the difficulties he had to contend with for want of proper tools and the engineer's skill. "I want a lathe, Antony," he said; "and a good lathe costs many pounds, so I have to botch and patch, and buy clock-wheels and file them down. It takes me a whole evening sometimes wandering about Clerkenwell or the New Cut hunting for what I want." "But I can often help you in that way," I said, "and I will." We went down soon after to a late supper, Hallett jealously locking up his attic before we descended. Mrs Hallett had gone to bed and Linny was reading, and jumped up as if startled at our entrance. Hallett spoke to her as we sat down to supper, and I noticed that he seemed to be cold and stern towards her, while Linny was excited and pettish, seeming to resent her brother's ways, and talked to me in a light, pleasant, bantering manner about Bluebeard's secret chamber. I noticed, too, that she always avoided her brother's eye, and when we parted that night Hallett seemed a good deal troubled, though he did not tell me why. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. SEVEN-AND-A-HALF AND A BONUS. It was the common talk at the office that Mr Lister was going to be married soon to the rich Miss Carr; and one day, when I was busily reading to Mr Jabez Rowle--who, snuff-box before him, kept drawing in his breath, hissing viciously, and sometimes smacking his lips as he dug his pen into some blunder in the slips before him--Mr Grimstone came bustling in, with his spectacles shining as much as his bald head, his scanty hair standing straight up, and, what was very rarely the case, a smile upon his face. "Well, Rowle," he said, rubbing his hands, "how is it this morning?" "Foul--foul foul," said Mr Jabez, with a dab at a stop he had missed before. "Those fellows of yours make more literals every day." "I'm always telling them of it, Rowle, always," said Mr Grimstone, nodding his head sharply. "How does this boy get on?" "Fairly--fairly," said Mr Rowle, screwing himself round upon his stool, and gazing full in the overseers face. "Now, then, Grimstone, what is it?--what's on the cards?" "Oh, nothing--nothing. I only looked in. Give me a pinch!" Mr Rowle handed his little brown box, and Mr Grimstone refreshed himself with a pinch before handing back the snuff to Mr Rowle, who also took a pinch loudly, and with a defiant flourish, while I took up a slip and a pen, and began to practise reading and correcting, a thing Mr Rowle always encouraged.