scraper affords facilities for. Naturally, as a
man of business, not wishing to be found
looking out of window, I went back to my
desk, to be ready to receive my visitor.

I waited some time, and then, as nobody
appeared in the office, returned to rny post of
observation, just in time to catch another
glimpse of the individual I had before
noticed, who was now descending the steps as
rapidly as he had come up them, and who, on
arriving at the bottom, proceeded to set off
down the street at a rapid pace. He had not
gone fifteen yards,however,before he slackened
his rate of walking, and then, stopping
altogether, seemed inclined to turn back. He
stood for some little time, looking first up
the street, and then down it, leaning upon an
unfurled umbrella which was in his left
hand, and smoothing his chin with the finger
and thumb of his right, drawing it towards a
point, as if he wished, by making that feature
a little sharper, to give it somewhat more of
character, which it certainly would have
borne. After standing thus for a moment or
two, and happening in one of his eye-excursions
to catch me looking at him, he turned
suddenly back, and apparently feeling himself
now committed to a course, came very
rapidly up the steps and into the office
without any further delays.

He was a thin, large-eyed, light-haired
man, with a vacillating and uncertain-looking
mouth, and a wandering eye. His loosely-tied
neckcloth displaying more of the
mechanism of that part of the shirt which
encircles the neck than is usually shown, and
discovering a wonderful number of buttons,
apparently placed in their present position
vith a view of meeting the exigencies of
various forms of false collar. It was a
muddy day, as has been already hinted, and
one leg of his trowsers was turned up round
the ancle, while the other remained in its
normal condition, a prey to splashes. His
coat collar was half up and half down, and
one of his thread gloves was off, while the
other was partly drawn on, but not inclosing
the thumb.

Such was the person who, entering my
office, remained standing close to the door of
the room while he explained his business,
and seeming very much inclined to take the
first opportunity which might offer of running
away as fast as his legs woud carry
him.

"He had called," he said, " to make some
inquiries about an investment, which he had
been given to understand I had the disposal
of,—not that he felt at all sure of adopting it.
Perhaps, that being so, he ought not to have
come in,—and yet he thought he should like
to know one or two particulars about the
speculation. Perhaps, though, it would be
giving me useless trouble, yes, he really
thought it was absurd to trouble me, he
would call again when he had thought it
over a little more."

He was actually nearly out of the office
before I could make him understand that I
should be most happy to give him the
information he required, whether it resulted in
his employing me or not.

Upon hearing this, my new acquaintance
advanced so far towards domesticating
himself in my office, as to go and place his
umbrella in the umbrella stand, under the
map of that estate in Somersetshire which
hangs against one of the walls of my
room. Then, seeming to think that by this
proceeding he was committing himself to a
course of conduct which might have
dangerous results, he turned back when he had
got half across the room, and took possession
of the umbrella again, before the little pool
of water, which (as it had a short time before
been raining very hard) ran from it freely,
was any size at all.

One would have thought that he would
have had enough to occupy his hands with in
keeping possession of this useful implement,
and a large and loosely-packed parcel, tied
up in a newspaper, which he retained under
his arm, and yet he managed to find fingers
enough wherewith to engage from time to
time in a sharp struggle to drag certain
scattered scraps of whisker towards the corner of
his mouth, appearing to be wholly absorbed
in his desire to chew these dainty morsels
when he ought to have been listening to my
account of the different advantages possessed
by the investment which was the subject of
his inquiries.

A wild stare of the eyes into vacancy, it
may commonly be remarked, is by no means
a sign of fixity of attention, and it is generally
less so still when it is accompanied in
the listener by a bowing action of the head,
softly keeping time to all the periods of the
narration which is going on. So, having
noted these symptoms in my gentleman, I
was the less surprised when I found from his
questions that my statement of particulars
had been but imperfectly attended to, and
that the major portion of them had to be
gone over again.

As soon as any advantage about the
speculation was mentioned, this gentleman, whose
name was Smallchange, thought it would just
do; but directly he had himself suggested some
attraction which it wanted, and which it would
have been very extraordinary if it had
possessed, he desponded, and thought it would
not. He brightened up amazingly, upon my
mentioning that he could always sell again,
and appeared to consider this a great point
indeed, saying he thought that had settled
him about it. But, suddenly remembering
that Mrs. Smallchange ought to be consulted
upon the subject, he appeared to become all
unsettled again, and asked if he might
suspend his decision till her opinion had
been obtained.

As I assented to this, he seemed inclined to
go off at once and see her about it, and had