the domestic virtues to those influences and to the improving society of my friend from boyhood commend me with your best wishes ah said affectionately now standing near him so that they both stood in one little cloud of smoke i would that you answered my three questions what is to come of it what are you doing where are you going t and my dear returned lightly away the smoke with his hand for the better of his frankness of face and manner believe me i would answer them instantly if i could but to enable me to do so i must first have found out the troublesome long abandoned here it is tapping his forehead and breast riddle me riddle me perhaps you can t tell me what this may be � no upon my life i can t i give it up our mutual friend chapter vii ix which a friendly move is originated the arrangement between mr and his literary man mr so far altered with the altered habits of mr s life as that the empire usually declined in the morning and in the eminently aristocratic family mansion rather than in the evening as of and in s bower there were occasions however when mr seeking a brief refuge from the of fashion would present himself at the bower after dark to anticipate the next forth of and would there on the old settle pursue the downward fortunes of those and masters of the world who were by this time on their last legs if had been worse paid for his office or better qualified to discharge it he would have considered these visits complimentary and agreeable but holding the position of a handsomely he resented them this was quite according to rule for the servant by employed is always against his employer even those born noble and right honorable creatures who have been the most in high places have uniformly shown themselves the most opposed sometimes in distrust sometimes in insolence to their employer what is in such wise true of the public master and servant is equally true of the private master and servant all the world over when mr did at last obtain free access to our house as he had been wont to call the mansion outside which he had eat so long and when he did at last find it in all particulars as different from his mental plans of it as according to the nature of things it well could be that far seeing and far reaching character by way of asserting himself and making out a case for compensation affected to fall into a melancholy strain of musing over the mournful past as if the house and he had had a fall in life together and this sir would say to his patron sadly nodding his head and musing was once our house this sir is the building from which i have so often seen those great creatures miss elizabeth master george aunt jane and uncle � whose very names were of his own � pass and and has it come to this indeed ah dear me dear me so tender were his that the kindly mr was quite sorry for him and almost felt that in buying the house he had done him an injury two or three the result of great en mr s part but assuming the mask of careless yielding to a combination of circumstances him towards had enabled him to complete his bargain with mr bring me round to the bower said when the bargain was vol i q cot mutual closed next saturday evening and if a glass of old warm should meet your views i am not the man to it you are aware of my being poor company sir replied mr but be it so it being so here is saturday evening come and here is mr come and ringing at the bower gate mr opens the gate a sort of brown paper under mr s arm and remarks in a dry tone oh thought perhaps you might have come in a cab no mr replies i am not above a parcel above a parcel no says with some dissatisfaction but does not openly growl a certain sort of parcel might be above you here is your purchase mr says politely h h ing it over and i am glad to restore it to the source from whence it � flowed says now this affair is concluded i may mention to you in a friendly way that i ve my doubts whether if i had consulted a lawyer you could have kept this article back from me i only throw it out as a legal point do you think mr bought you in open contract you t buy human flesh and blood in this country sir not alive you can t says shaking his head then bone as a legal point asks as a legal point i am not competent to speak upon that mr says and growing something louder but upon a point of fact i think myself competent to speak and as a of fact i would have seen you � will you allow me to say further i wouldn t say more than further if i was you mr suggests � before i d have given that packet into your hand without being paid my price for it i don t pretend to know how the point of law may but i m thoroughly confident upon the point of fact as mr is irritable no doubt owing to his disappointment in love and as it is not the cue of mr to have him out of temper the latter gentleman soothingly remarks i only put it as a little case i only put it ha then i d rather mr you put it another time is mr s retort for i tell you candidly i don t 