The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-19

Boffin came into luis fortune with the l help of Mortimer. MT. Boffin being the
 solitary client before mentioned as Nor | timers sole possession in that line. MT. and Mrs. Boffin were good-hearted, | simple creatures. who had stood between ] the cruelty of old Harmon and his boy | as much as they could and who now 1 sincerely mourned the death of the na- | tural heir, even though they profited by | it--and when people do that they must be | good
 "Noddy" Boffin was content to live in | the dingy old place surrounded by dust 1 heaps where his master had lived before l him. but as he explained My old | woman Is something of high flyer at
 fashion and we have decided to move
 into q bigger house.
 However, he kept Boffin's Bower, as | he called it-Harmony Jail, as the neigh
 bors called it-intact, and established | there his literary man. one-legsed l old rascal named Sas Wegg, whom MT. l Boffin had taken from little sidewalk
 stall and engaged at a good salary to | read to him evenings, MT. Boffin him
 self not being strong on reading, but
 having a fancy to learn what books were | all about anyWay-especially what was | contained in a set of "The Decline and
 Fall O. the Roman Emplre,' which he | had purchased at bargain and mlsread | into the Roosian Empire"
 Wegg, being thoroughly incompetent. of l course hated his employer. It is pecu- | larity of all incompetnet servants, from | prime ministers down. that the more in- competent they are the more they con | sider that they have grievance against | their employers. So Wegg was accustom- | ed to refer to Mir Boffn, when in con- | versation with his friend Mir Venus, as
 "The Minion of Fortune and the Worm of
 the Hcur" and plotted dark things l against him.
 | (Which is the better man?" Wegg
 would say over his rum and water, me op him as I declines and falls for2''
 | Mir. Boffin upon his accession to for | tune tc ok under his protection two other people who were destined to play an inns l portant part in his life story: MT. John | Rokesmith and Miss Bella Wilfer. Rokesmith was secretary, managed MT. | Bofff:i's affairs generally and stood be-
 tween the Golden Dustman, as the people l called him, and a very eager, grasping l world The young man had presented | himself to Boffin and asked for the job
 when the Golden Dustman moved into
 his new shoes of Fortunatus. Boffin had said: "Well, well! Call on ] me some day and we will sec" Roke-
 smith had called on him and found him
 helplessly and hopelessly involved in a maze of letters, bills and other docu- ments which covered the table. | Let me see." said the Golden Dust 1 man. "It was secretary you mentioned; wasn't it? It rather puzzled me at the l time, and 1t rather puzzled me and Mrs. | Boffin when we came to talk it over. We
 have always supposed secretary to be | piece of furniture lined with green | baise and lot of little draws in it. Now, l you won't think I take liberty when
 I say you can't possibly be that. | Rokesmith explained the duties of a sec ' retary. and illustrated his explanation by ] sorting and arranging the documents be- , fore Mr. Boffin.
 "Wonderfulr' said Mr. Boffin. How | do you do it without getting ink on ] you7'
 i And I tell you, Noddy,' chimed in | fat, motherly, good-natured Mrs Dust
 man, 'if you ever go a-muddlin' with | them things again as aint made for you nor meant for you you'll have an 1 apoplexy-besides iron-molding your linen and break my heart
 Miss Bella Wilfer, the other important | addition to MT. Boffin's household had | regretted the death of young John Har- | mon quite as much as good Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, though from different reason. AS if it wasn't absurd enough to be l given away in mans will like a piece | of furniture" she said to her family, 'here l have to go and wear this absurd | mourning for man l never saw and | should have hated if had seen him. | And worst of all, after seeing money 1 of which there is little enough to see in | this household. goodness knows-almost
 within my grasp, here 1t is all snatched | away again.
 Peace. holdn' proclaimed Mrs. Wilfer, | a stately lady who had her head envel- | oped in a handkerchief and looked like | Lady Macbeth with the toothache. And none of you have any sympathy ! for me-" continued Bella. "Oh, yes. you have, pa; dear pa'-and the mercenary I little creature threw her arms around ] the neck of her cherublc pa.
 Pas name was Reginald Wilfer, which 1 suggests castles and knights in armor | but he was short, good natured little fellow the exact reverse in nature and l appearance to his wife; and his associates I in the Mincing Lane office where he was clerk, called him Rumpty as being l more appropriate name than Reginald. MT. John Rokesmith had lodging in ! Rumpty's house, and the Boffins, after | asking him about his landlords daugh- i ter Bella, came in a chariot one day | and carried her off to their fine mansion, where they proposed to treat her as their l daughter and leave her pot of money when they died as reparation for the wrong John Harmon had done her in dying.
 Bella took very kindly to her new life, for al, the world and his lady called upon MT. and Mrs. Boffin now-the Ve- neerings, the stately Podsnaps. little MT. l Twemlow, who was second cousin to real earl; the Lammles who had mar ried each other under the entirely mis- ] taken notion that each had money, and in short. Society. including Eugene Wray- burn and Mortimer Lightwood-the for
 mer more languid than ever and given to haunting places where he might catch glimpse of Lizzie Hexam.
 So behold MT. Boffin in the hands of | society, which made grabs at his pocket l book. John Rokesmith, who stood between | him and that same society; Bella Wilfer, who accepted his benefactions IS a mat l ter of course. and Silas Wegg. who busily ! devised methods of getting increased pay | out of him and looked sharply about | for some means of doing him an injury. l Rokesmith was hermit-crab sort of a | secretary, kept generally in his own room, | would never appear at the table when ! there was company, and, most ol all seemed to avoid meeting Wrayburn and Lightwood.
 It might have been propinquity, 1t
 might have been something else. but In