"Well, sir, then he couldn't do better than go to Mrs Deene's, sir. A very respectable woman, whose husband--" "Yes, to be sure, Mrs Pinet," said Hallam abruptly; "then you'll show him where it is. Good-night, Stephen; don't waste your money, and I hope you will succeed." "Good-night, sir, good-night," and the dejected-looking object, thoroughly cowed by the treatment he had received, followed Hallam's landlady to the outer door, where a short colloquy could be heard, and then there was a shuffling step passing the window, and the door closed. "I always expected it," said Hallam to himself, as he stood gazing straight before him; "but I've drawn his teeth; he won't bite--he dare not. I think I can manage Master Stephen--I always could." He stood thinking for a few minutes, and then said softly: "Well, what are ten or twenty pounds, or forty, if it comes to that! Yes," he added deliberately, "I have done quite rightly, I am sure." Undoubtedly, as far as his worldly wisdom lay, for it did not take long for the news to run round the town that a very shabby-looking fellow had been to the bank, evidently with burglarious intentions, but that the new manager had seized and held him, while James Thickens placed the big brass blunderbuss to his head, and then turned it round and knocked him down. This was Mr Gemp's version; but it was rather spoiled by Mrs Pinet when she was questioned, and told her story of Mr Hallam's generous behaviour to this poor young man: "One whom he had known in better days, my dear; and now he has quite set him up." VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE. A LITTLE BIT OF NEWS. Time glided very rapidly by at King's Castor, for there were few things to check his progress. People came to the market and did their business, and went away. Most of them had something to do at Dixons' Bank, for it was the pivot upon which the affairs of King's Castor and the neighbourhood turned. It was the centre from which radiated the commerce of the place. Pivot or axle, there it was, with a patent box full of the oil that makes matters run easily, and so trade and finance round King's Castor seemed like some large wheel, that turned gently and easily on. Dixons' had a great deal to do with everybody, but Dixons' was safe, and Dixons' was sure. On every side you heard how that Dixons' had taken this or that man by the hand, with the best of results. Stammers borrowed money at five per cent, when he put out that new front. Morris bought his house with Dixons' money, and they held the deeds, so that Morris was a man of importance--one of the privileged who paid no rent. He paid interest on so many hundred pounds to Dixons' half-yearly, but that was interest, not rent.