boxer, took off that girdle or cestus as before,
and laid it on the table. Taking the table to
represent the path of virtue, I am justified in
stating that during the whole time of the Aged's
reading, Wemmick's arm was straying from the
path of virtue and being recalled to it by Miss
Skiffins.

At last, the Aged read himself into a light
slumber. This was the time for Wemmick to
produce a little kettle, a tray of glasses, and a
black bottle with a porcelain-topped cork,
representing some clerical dignitary of a rubicund
and social aspect. With the aid of these appliances
we all had something warm to drink:
including the Aged, who was soon awake again.
Miss Skiffins mixed, and I observed that she
and Wemmick drank out of one glass. Of
course I knew better than to offer to see Miss
Skiffins home, and under the circumstances I
thought I had best go first: which I did, taking
a cordial leave of the Aged, and having passed a
pleasant evening.

Before a week was out, I received a note from
Wemmick, dated Walworth, stating that he hoped
he had made some advance in that matter
appertaining to our private and personal capacities,
and that he would be glad if I could come and see
him again upon it. So, I went out to Walworth
again, and yet again, and yet again, and I saw him
by appointment in the City several times, but
never held any communication with him on the
subject in or near Little Britain. The upshot was
that we found a worthy young merchant or shipping-
broker, not long established in business, who
wanted intelligent help, and who wanted capital,
and who in due course of time and receipt would
want a partner. Between him and me, secret
articles were signed of which Herbert was the
subject, and I paid him half of my five hundred
pounds down, and engaged for sundry other
payments: some, to fall due at certain dates out
of my income: some, contingent on my coming
into my property. Miss Skiffins's brother
conducted the negotiation; Wemmick pervaded it
throughout, but never appeared in it.

The whole business was so cleverly managed
that Herbert had not the least suspicion of my
hand being in it. I never shall forget the
radiant face with which he came home one
afternoon, and told me, as a mighty piece of
news, of his having fallen in with one Clarriker
(the young merchant's name), and of Clarriker' s
having shown an extraordinary inclination
towards him, and of his belief that the opening
had come at last. Day by day as his hopes grew
stronger and his face brighter, he must have
thought me a more and more affectionate friend,
for I had the greatest difficulty in restraining
my tears of triumph when I saw him so happy.
At length, the thing being done, and he having
that day entered Clarriker's House, and he
having talked to me for a whole evening in a
flush of pleasure and success, I did really cry
in good earnest when I went to bed, to think
that my expectations had done some good to
somebody.

A great event in my life, the turning-point of
my life, now opens on my view. But before I
proceed to narrate it, and before I pass on to all
the changes it involved, I must give one chapter
to Estella. It is not much to give to the theme
that so Iong filled my heart.

UNDER THE GOLDEN EEET.

FORTY years ago, a young English merchant
undertook what was then the hazardous venture
of opening a trade with the Burmese. Jealous
of strangers, save when they chanced to become
the personal friends of the monarch, strict
protectionists, exclusive and conservative, they were
not very inviting people to deal with; but the
chance of danger lends an unspeakable charm to
this vulgar common-place life of ours, and the
more certain a man is of getting his throat cut,
the more eager he is to try his fortune in the
very spot where the razor is being sharpened.
Mr. Gouger was more attracted than repelled
by the probable dangers of his career; and after
narrowly escaping shipwreck on the terrible
Preparis shoal, anchored off Rangoon, where his
first Burmese experiences were to begin. After
a visit from the collector of customs and his
followers—during which visit the one ate cheese,
and the others, in imitation, yellow soap—the
customary bribes were given, and the ship's
rudder allowed to remain where it hung; without
the bribe it would have been unshipped, so
as to leave the vessel at the mercy of the
authorities. The cargo was then sent on shore, the
king's tenths were levied, and Mr. Gouger was
now free to ascend with unshod feet the houses
of the magnates of the land, and there, in their
presence, twist himself into a constrained
contortion of body, half sitting, half kneeling, while
the great men before him were enjoying their
ease on some cushions of honour. The tables
were turned, and from the haughty superiority
of the British resident in Hindustan, the Anglo-
Saxon blood had to humble itself to the
insolence of the Burmese, and taste the pleasures
to be found in servility and submission. After
a few weeks spent at Rangoon in learning the
manners and customs of his new hosts, Mr.
Gouger set sail up the Irrawuddi for Amerapoorah,
the then residence of the king and court,
where he hoped to do a first-rate business, and
make his fortune with the fabulous certainty of
the " earliest trader." He found that city in a
state of mourning and decay, the king having
lately resolved to remove to the ancient royal
residence of Ava; and as the removal of the
palace means, in Burmah, the creation or
destruction of the city, Amerapoorah was in
sackcloth and ashes—the one-half ruined, and the
other preparing for ruin. The young foreign
merchant was received graciously. No royal
tenths were extracted, no custom-house
hindrances offered, no petty thefts, no official
insolence, but only a wild mad curiosity to see
what strange treasures had been brought from
the far West. But Mr. Gouger was better
taught than to expose even the extreme hem of
a Manchester pocket-handkerchief before having