City Sketches, 345 



zeal by the collar " now, say the word : why can't you come and 

 take a snap with us, at eight o'clock tomorrow evening, 54, Beech- 

 Row, Walworth ? That's where we hang out, and bring Downey 

 with you, will you '(" 



" I will come," said Storks, and he repeated the address, " and I 

 will bring Downey with me :" and after many fervent graspings of 

 the hand on all sides, the two friends separated, each bent upon 

 bringing to bear the project which had been so suddenly and faintly 

 shadowed forth, but which, as each walked homeward, as suddenly 

 assumed (if I may be permitted the phrase) a mentally tangible shape. 

 Mr. Storks, being strictly a man of his word, and at the same time 

 wanting a word with his man, made it his business, on the morrow, 

 to seek after his friend Mr. Downey, whom, after much fruitless and 

 previous search, he found in one of the many houses of call fre- 

 quented by that gentleman. 



Mr. Downey was one of those persons who contrive to exhibit a 

 respectable appearance, without any apparent means of so doing, 

 and who manage to get a good living without any ostensible avoca- 

 tion in life. In truth, the means of sustenance acquired by Mr. 

 Downey were as mysteriously procured, as the sustenance which is 

 always supposed to attend Knights-errant in the old Romances, there 

 being, as we have said, no conceivable source from whence they 

 could be imagined to flow. Mr. Downey, however, was one of those 

 hearty and convivial souls who are always to be found in public- 

 house parlours who always drink spirits and water who never 

 leave the house without staying at the bar to toss with their compa- 

 nion, three out of five, who shall pay for another glass, and who 

 always discharge the reckoning out of a handful of silver, with an 

 expression of firm belief that it will be "all the same a hundred years 

 hence," or with the pertinent query, " What's the odds, so long as 

 you're happy ?" 



Mr. Downey was, of course, infinitely pleased, nay, delighted, 

 when he was made acquainted with the extraordinary interference 

 of chance which had brought into contact two such intimate and 

 estimable friends as Mr. Storks and Mr. Hookem. It need scarcely 

 be added, that he readily consented to accompany the former on his 

 intended visit, and in the meanwhile the two gentlemen exchanged 

 much confidential chat touching the probable practicability of a part- 

 nership transaction. This question having been duly raised, these 

 amiable parties mounted a Walworth stage, and in due time were set 

 down at No. 54, Beech Row, where they were received with all that 

 unostentatious hospitality which, perhaps, peculiarly distinguishes the 

 English character. 



It was not long after their arrival, that the kettle was proclaimed 

 to be about to favour the company with a song that a bottle of 

 whiskey was caused to emerge from the cupboard that the tumblers 

 were cleaned and set upon the table, and that Downey's cigar-case 

 made its appearance from his side pocket. These preliminaries 

 arranged, and each gentleman having been requested to mix for 

 himself, business was entered upon without further ceremony. 



"Never trust me," said Downey, biting off* the end of his cigar, 

 " if that wasn't a queer start, you two fellows meeting in the strange 

 way you did, but wonders will never cease, as the sweep said when 

 he beggar kicked him." 



