Year: 1860

done in that way. It's not much, but I'll
pay you any commission I CAM" and be
pressed so near that laid my hands on my
breast buttons. eff you will be so good as
to tell me your Office, or anywhere you like
to see me will come tomorrow forenoon y


''Here's my address" said I "I'm always
glad to see people in the way of business
in the meantime, I am in haste to get home
and wish you very good night"


My steps did not linger after that declar-
alton. The shabby, admiring man might
have confederates and the road was not busy;
but when looked back at the next turn
there he was, standing in the same spot, and
gazing after me as if had been his guardi-
an angel leaving him to himself


Mrs. Rugby and had a good laugh over
that interview, when we sat by the fire after
our boys and girls had gone to bed. l
wanted to make her believe he was count.
ess in disguise she insisted he was sharper
and meant to wheede me out of money or
stock. At last, we agreed the man must be
mad /; and l went to the Office next morning
resolved to let him slip out of my aequaint.
ance as quietly as he had stepped into it.
According to my usual custom, was at my
I Office full three hours before the Exchange
opened, but there was the man pacing up
and down in front of the premises and evil
dently waiting for me. When he had got
fairly into the sanctuary of business, alias
the small and diDgy room which serves gen.
tlemen of my profession in the neighborhood
of Capel Court, be came to the point with
out giving me time to ask it, by producing
pocket book with as many marks of better
days and hard service as himself, turning it
over so as to let me see very few notes,
reading a memorandum for his own instruc~
tion, and then requesting me to buy for him
three hundred shares in certain Scotch
railway. -4a n


The line is now one of the best paying in
Britain, but, for prudential reasons, which
one ought to have in speaking of anything
Scotch, will not give its particular 'desig-
nation. 1t had been commenced in the first
fervor Of railway making, when the public
mind, having awakened to the utility of the
iron road, for which George Stephenson and
his supporters had fought so tough battle,
rushed into companies and scrip in every
direction, and would have laid down rails
between John O'Groat's and the Land 8
End. The line in question was not quite so
unpromising, but from local cause, as we'll
as q temporary reaction of the ferment, its
scrip was rapidly going down. was aware
that interested parties were doing their best
to keep up the shares, and brokers who had
none to sell called it bad speculation.
Perhaps 1 ought to claim credit for consci-
entiousness beyond the most of Capef Court
men, but my would-be customer looked so
hard up, so earnestly bent on turning his
few notes to the best advantage, that
could not help telling him my mind on the
subject, and seriously advising him to have
nothing to do with the Scotch railway. He
heard me with look of quiet but immov-
able obstinacy.


g. 1t may be all true, sir; am sure it is,
for have heard as much from all quarters !;
but buy the three hundred shares for me
they are down fifty per cent. now. / have
got hundred pounds here, and I'll pay you
the rest within fortnight"


You'll lose your money" said 1 {" the
line will never pay"


1t will pay and I won't lose !' said the
man, his eye kindirg with a fire so bright
and wild that it made me think of our con-
clusions overnight.


II don't care if tell you, though some
people might think it silly to believe in
such things, that I had dream about that
railway, sir. My uncle was irst-rate
speculator, Lancashire man, one of the
earliest that came out strong for George
Stephenson you have heard of him, per-
haps;" and he named gentleman we'll
known 10 the first railway war, but then
deceased for some years. He brought
me up, and would have left me bis shares in
the Northwestern, but l displeased him by
marrying against his will, and my uncle ne
yer forgave anybody. l don't repent that
yet; my wife's the best woman in the
world, and prettier face l never saw; but
we've been poor, sir, very poor, and nothing
has succeeded with me, though have tried
good many things. When my uncle died,
FIVE years ago, be left bis shares, bank stock
and all, to housekeeper he had I'm told
they're Liverpool gentry now but 1 had
not seen him for seventeen years, till one
night last month. ! had dream it must
have been near daybreak. The old man ap.
peared to come into my room, looking as be
used to do when we were good friends, and
bringing with him person whom I never
saw before. 'Tom,' said be, this gentle
man is stock broker; get him to buy you
three hundred shares in the - Railway
and you'll be rich man before seven years.
He said few more words which don't
matter just at present, then walked away
and woke up so sure of the whole busi-
ness that strudk light, and looked
round the room for the man be had brought
till poor Sally thought I had lost my judg.
ment. The dream occurred every night fol
a week after. l got up all the money
could muster, and went over London, look.
ing for the stock broker, but I never saw
him till yesterday evening, when 1 was 60