So Tudor went out, and Neverbend prepared himself to sit up for him. He would sooner have remained up all night than have gone to bed before his colleague came back. Three days Alaric Tudor had now passed with Mr. Neverbend, and not only three days but three evenings also! A man may endure to be bored in the course of business through the day, but it becomes dreadful when the infliction is extended to post-prandial hours. It does not often occur that one is doomed to bear the same bore both by day and night; any change gives some ease; but poor Alaric for three days had had no change. He felt like a liberated convict as he stepped freely forth into the sweet evening air, and made his way through the town to the opposition inn. Here he found Undy on the door-steps with a cigar in his mouth. 'Here I am, waiting for you,' said he. 'You are fagged to death, I know, and we'll get a mouthful of fresh air before we go upstairs,'--and so saying he put his arm through Alaric's, and they strolled off through the suburbs of the town. 'You don't smoke,' said Undy, with his cigar-case in his hand. 'Well--I believe you are right--cigars cost a great deal of money, and can't well do a man any real good. God Almighty could never have intended us to make chimneys of our mouths and noses. Does Fidus ever indulge in a weed?' 'He never indulges in anything,' said Alaric. 'Except honesty,' said the other, 'and in that he is a beastly glutton. He gorges himself with it till all his faculties are overpowered and his mind becomes torpid. It's twice worse than drinking. I wonder whether he'll do a bit of speculation before he goes back to town.' 'Who, Neverbend?--he never speculates!' 'Why not? Ah, my fine fellow, you don't know the world yet. Those sort of men, dull drones like Neverbend, are just the fellows who go the deepest. I'll be bound he will not return without a few Mary Janes in his pocket-book. He'll be a fool if he does, I know.' 'Why, that's the very mine we are down here about.' 'And that's the very reason why he'll purchase Mary Janes. He has an opportunity of knowing their value. Oh, let Neverbend alone. He is not so young as you are, my dear fellow.' 'Young or old, I think you mistake his character.' 'Why, Tudor, what would you think now if he not only bought for himself, but was commissioned to buy by the very men who sent him down here?' 'It would be hard to make me believe it.' 'Ah! faith is a beautiful thing; what a pity that it never survives the thirtieth year;--except with women and fools.' 'And have you no faith, Scott?' 'Yes--much in myself--some little in Lord Palmerston, that is, in his luck; and a good deal in a bank-note. But I have none at all in Fidus Neverbend. What! have faith in a man merely because he tells me to have it! His method of obtaining it is far too easy.' 'I trust neither his wit nor his judgement; but I don't believe him to be a thief.'