"Vy, sir, you understand,"--began a very elderly person, of a portly figure, who seemed to be held in great respect by his companions, but who, by his dialect, had evidently been thrown among the least cultivated portion of the metropolitan population,--"you understand, that's a vay o' hembarking cappitle, as it vere, vich I vouldn't recommend, for von: for, by the same rule, you understand, another gen'lmans a-been thinking of it, and I said the same, you understand, to him." But Mr. Mortimer did _not_ understand; and he therefore made no reply. "But it depends a good deal on the particular object the individual has in view who embarks the capital," observed a thin, keen-looking man: "if Captain Dundas, now, were to start a paper in Greenwich, it could not fail to answer his purpose." "By the same rule," interjected the elderly person, "that's quite another affair, as it vere. The Captain, you understand,--and success to him say I, vith all my 'art!--the Captain, you understand, by the same rule, vouldn't care about the paper paying." "Exactly," observed the bland landlord, reconciling the apparent difference of his guests; "so that that does not disprove your point." "But pray, gentlemen," asked Mr. Mortimer, "may I ask what would be the particular object of Captain Dundas, if he were to start a new paper in your town?" "O! Parliament, sir!--Parliament, of course!" quickly replied the thin, keen-looking man, with a very significant shake of the head. Mr. Mortimer's blood beat quick with a rush of thoughts; but he resolved to be prudent, and so he said nothing; but he felt more than ever assured of the legal gentleman's intelligence who had first recommended his present errand, and he sank gently back, when he had sipped largely at his brandy and water, and pulled away vehemently at his cigar. "It is indeed the intellectual lever, as the gentleman said," reflected Mr. Mortimer within himself, "whereby a man may raise himself to the House of Commons: every intelligent man thinks so: but then--where to plant the fulcrum?"