of a few days I heard from Mr. Axminster,
that his liability of one hundred pounds had
been duly honoured.

In my active and exciting life, one day
extinguishes the recollection of the events of the
preceding day; and, for a time, I thought no
more about the fashionable forger. I had
taken it for granted that, heartily frightened,
although not repenting, she had paused in her
felonious pursuits.

My business, one day, led me to the
establishment of one of the most wealthy and
respectable legal firms in the city, where I am
well known, and, I believe, valued; for at all
times I am most politely, I may say most
cordially, received. Mutual profits create a
wonderful freemasonry between those who
have not any other sympathy or sentiment.
Politics, religion, morality, difference of
rank, are all equalised and republicauised by
the division of an account. No sooner had I
entered the sanctum, than the senior partner,
Mr. Preceps, began to quiz his junior, Mr.
Jones, with, "Well, Jones must never joke
friend Discount any more about usury. Just
imagine," he continued, addressing me, "Jones
has himself been discounting a bill for a lady;
and a deuced pretty one too. He sat next
her at dinner in Grosvenor Square last week.
Next day she gave him a call here, and he
could not refuse her extraordinary request.
Gad, it is hardly fair for Jones to be poaching
on your domains of West-end paper!"

Mr. Jones smiled quietly, as he observed,
"Why, you see, she is the niece of one of our
best clients; and, really, I was so taken by
surprise, that I did not know how to refuse."

"Pray," said I, interrupting his excuses,
"does your young lady's name begin with S.?
Has she not a very pale face, and cold gray
eye?"

The partners stared.

"Ah! I see it is so; and can at once tell
you that the bill is not worth a rush."

"Why, you don't mean——?"

"I mean simply that the acceptance is, Til
lay you a wager, a forgery."

"A forgery!"

"A forgery," I repeated, as distinctly as
possible.

Mr. Jones hastily, and with broken ejaculations,
called for the cash-box. With trembling
hands he took out the bill, and followed my
finger with eager, watchful eyes, as I pointed
out the proof's of my assertion.

A long pause was broken by my mocking
laugh; for, at the moment, my sense of politeness
could not restrain my satisfaction at the
signal defeat which had attended the first
experiment of these highly respectable gentlemen
in the science of usury.

The partners did not have recourse to the
police. They did not propose a consultation
with either Mr. Forrester or Mr. Field;
but they took certain steps, under my
recommendation; the result of which was that
at an early day, an aunt of the Honourable
Miss Snape was driven, to save so near a
connexion from transportation, to sell out
some fourteen hundred pounds of stock, and
all the forgeries were taken up.

One would have thought that the lady
who had thus so narrowly escaped, had had
enough; but forgery, like opium-eating, is
one of those charming vices which is never
abandoned, when once adopted. The forger
enjoys not only the pleasure of obtaining
money so easily, but the triumph of befooling
sharp men of the world. Dexterous
penmanship is a source of the same sort of
pride as that which animates the skilful rifle-
man, the practised duellist, or well-trained
billiard-player. With a clean Gillott he fetches
down a capitalist, at three or six mouths, for a
cool hundred or a round thousand; just as a
Scrope drops over a stag at ten, or a Gordon
Cumming a monstrous male elephant at a
hundred paces.

As I before observed, my connexion
especially lies among the improvident—among
those who will be ruined—who are being
ruined- and who have been ruined. To the
last class belongs Francis Fisherton, once a
gentleman, now without a shilling or a
principle; but rich in mother-wit—in fact a, farceur,
after Paul de Kock's own heart. Having in
bygone days been one of my willing victims,
he occasionally finds pleasure and profit in
guiding others through the gate he frequented,
as long as able to pay the tolls. In truth
he is what is called a "discount agent."

One day I received a note from him, to say
that he would call on me at three o'clock the
next day, to introduce a lady of family, who
wanted a bill "done" for one hundred pounds.
So ordinary a transaction merely needed a
memorandum in my diary, "Tuesday, 3 P.M.;
F.F., 100l. Bill." The hour came and passed;
but no Frank, which was strange—because
every one must have observed, that, however
dilatory people are in paying, they are wonderfully
punctual when they expect to receive
money.

At five o'clock, in rushed my Jackall. His
story, disentangled from oaths and ejaculations,
amounted to this:—In answer to one of
the advertisements he occasionally addresses
"To the Embarrassed," in the columns of the
"Times," he received a note from a lady, who
said she was anxious to get a "bill done"--
the acceptance of a well-known man of rank
and fashion. A correspondence was opened,
and an appointment made. At the hour
fixed, neatly shaved, brushed, gloved, booted,
—the revival, in short, of that high-bred
Frank Fisherton, who was so famous

"In his hot youth, when Crockford's was the thing,"

glowing with only one glass of brandy "just
to steady his nerves," he met the lady at a
West-end pastry-cook's.

After a few words (for all the material
questions had been settled by correspondence)
she stepped into her brougham, and invited