"Oh, is it?"
"Yes. Have you got that ere little article with you?"
"The bugle? Oh, yes."
"Mind you blows it then, if you sees Todd come home, and no gammon."
"Trust to me old fellow."
Without another word, Mr. Crotchet crossed over the road, and opened the shop-door of the shoemaker. Now the face of Mr. Crotchet was not the most engaging in the world, and when he looked in upon the shoemaker, that industrious workman felt a momentary pang of alarm, and particularly when Mr. Crotchet, imparting a horrible obliquity to his vision, said—
"How is yer, old un?"
"Sir?" said the shoemaker.
"You couldn't show a fellow the way up to Smith's hattic, I supposes?"
"Smith—Smith?—Oh, dear me, that's the new lodger. I'll call him down if you wait here."