A ' TIDY ' PR A CTITIONER 39 



On being informed that he had made a good guess 

 that I was in reality the very person, and that I wished 

 to know the nature of the business he had with me, if 

 any, he said : 



' I am the holder of a bill of yours for 300, overdue.' 



I was annoyed, and replied plainly : 



' If you hold such a document it is a forgery, for I have 

 but one bill out in the world, and that is one to Mr. J. B, 

 Starkey for 300, which is not due.' 



To this he immediately replied : 



' There are two ; come to my office and I will show 

 both of them to you.' 



' If you have a second one,' I answered, ' it must be 

 an old bill that has been already paid.' 



* No,' he said ; ' there are two, and I have advanced 

 the money on both.' 



This I knew to be an untruth, contradicted as it after- 

 wards was by Mr. Starkey himself. He (Mr. Starkey) 

 assured me over and over again he would see his ' tidy ' 

 little friend, who would immediately give up the old one, 

 which should be forwarded to me. On this understand- 

 ing, unfortunately, I allowed the matter to drift, till I had 

 a writ. Mr. Starkey then came and implored me to take 

 no notice of it, assuring me that the bill should be paid, 

 and that the old and new bills should be given up to- 

 gether. I still foolishly trusted to his word, allowing 

 the thing to remain open until judgment was signed ; 

 and as it was then inconvenient for me to find 600, and 

 as Mr. Starkey could not or would not pay the money, I 

 had, in order to save unpleasant consequences always 

 best avoided, to make terms with the kind-hearted 

 West-End scrivener ; which ended in my having to pay 

 him 725 the odd 125 for expenses and interest, for 

 a few weeks' delay, notwithstanding that I never directly 



