THE HARD-UP. 47 



No;, but a little quiet out-of-the-way house, where you 

 may see some very varmint gentlemen, awfully up to 

 what's what and who's who, and get a fresh bit of fish, 

 and a chop disg-uised any way you like, almost as cheap 

 as at the veriest make-shift in Newgate-street. We 

 will say no more, or the place will get appreciated and 

 crowded — and that, of course, means spoilt — so tumble 

 up-stairs, and " give yom^ orders" at once; for, strange 

 as it may sound, they will keep you waiting here for your 

 dinner while they dress- it. 



Stop ! did'nt I tell you so ! — Table of three on the other 

 side of the room — Youngish, fastish, but still gentlemanly 

 lad of seventeen or eighteen; jolly, stout, dark, curly- 

 haired gentleman of forty; and long-faced, thin, quiet, 

 ^^ I-can-lay-it-yoa ' looking one, of any age from five-and- 

 twenty to seven-and- thirty you may like to set him at. 

 Hark I— 



" Well, but I say, Billy, why did'nt you go to the Mas- 

 querade ?" an inquiry apparently repeated from the jovial 

 one to the juvenile. 



^' Because I was so jolly hard-up, I tell you. I had'nt 

 enough by three-and-sixpence to pay for a ticket ; and 

 Weyton, who was the only fellow who would lend it me, 

 hadn'.gotit." 



"That was hardish-run, too," said the Hyperion- 

 headed gentleman, with a laugh; ^^but what did you 

 do with yourself ?" 



" I didn't know what to do with m^^self — that was it ; 

 thought about Hungerford Bridge after dinner, and all 

 that sort of thing ; when just as I was in the middle of a 

 debate, and in the middle of a street, I was precious nearly 

 saved the. trouble of all further discussion by being run 

 into, as near as a toucher, by one of the * Royal Blues' 



