"Well, p'raps I am, D'Ossay," said Griffiths, who began to see how the land lay; "perhaps I am in some things; but it ain't only luck,--I'm as lucky as most of 'em; but it's the talent as does it--the talent; and there's none of us has got that like you, D'Ossay, my boy."
"Well, luck or talent, or whatever it is," said Effingham, pulling the bell, "it helps me on.--Bring some brandy and hot water here.--I come in here to have a mouthful o' bread and cheese and a glass o' ale about two this afternoon, and Pollock was in here; Jack Pollock they call him,--the fellow that writes the plays, you know."
Mr. Griffiths, over his first gulp of brandy-and-water, nodded his head in acquiescence.
"Things is going on rather bad at the Garden," continued Mr. Effingham; "I don't know whether you've heard. Their pantomime's been a reg'lar failure this year, and Wuff's paper's beginning to fly again. I suppose old Lyons is in that swim, for Pollock says to me, 'Didn't I hear you askin' after Mr. Lyons?' he says. 'I did,' I says. 'I thought so,' he says; 'and I told him so when I saw him just now in Wuff's room at the Garden. And he says, "I've just come back from abroad, and I don't reckleckt Mr. Effingham's name," he says; "but if he's one of the right sort, he'll find me among the lemons on Sunday morning."' So I thanked Pollock, and winked my eye, and nodded my head, and made believe as though I knew all about it; but I don't."
"You don't?"
"Not a bit of it; I'm as far off as ever, save for knowing that the old man's in England."
"You ain't fly to what's meant by 'among the lemons,' eh?"
"Not a bit of it, I tell you. What are you grinning and chuckling away at there, Griffiths? That's one of your disgustin' ways,--crowin' over me because you know something which I don't."
"Don't be riled, D'Ossay; don't be riled, old feller. It's so seldom that I get a chance of findin' anything that you don't know, young though you are, that I make the most of it, I confess."
"Well, there, all right. Now do you know what he meant by 'among the lemons'?"