“I daren't do it unless you promise faithfully never to tell you had it of me. I have got a character to lose, and I would not have it known—not for the world, that James Walker had sold such loose—licentious—”
“Oh! what it is very spicy, is it? Come, hand it over. There's the two bob.”
“My poverty and not my will consents,” sighed the trader.
“There, you be off, or we shall have all the brats coming round us.”
The peddler complied and moved off, and so willing was he to oblige his customers that on turning the corner he shouldered his pack and ran with great agility down the street, till he gained a network of small alleys in which he wriggled and left no trace.
Meantime sunken-eyes had put his tongue to the envelope and drawn out the contents. “I'll go into the light and see what it is all about.”
mephistopheles left alone had hardly given his pipe two sucks ere brutus returned black with rage and spouting oaths like a whale.
“Why, what is the matter?”
“Matter! Didn't he sell this to me for a flash story?”
“Why he didn't say so. But certainly he dropped a word about loose books.”