"One gets good service from a man who expects his reward in the future.
Luke Tulliver serves me very well indeed, and of course I am not
responsible for his delusions."

"Do you know, Mr. Nowell, that is a man I should scarcely care to trust.
To my mind there is a warning of danger in his countenance."

"My dear sir, I have never trusted any one in my life," answered the
silversmith promptly. "I don't for a moment suppose that Luke Tulliver
would be honest if I gave him an opportunity to cheat me. As to the
badness of his countenance, that is so much the better. I like to deal
with an obvious rogue. The really dangerous subject is your honest fool,
who goes on straight enough till he has lulled one into a false security,
and then turns thief all at once at the instigation of some clever
tempter."

"That young man lives in the house with you, I suppose?"

"Yes; my household consists of Luke Tulliver, and an old woman who does
the cooking and other work. There are a couple of garrets at the top of
the house where the two sleep; my own bedroom is over this; and the room
over the shop is full of pictures and other unsaleable stuff, which I
have seldom occasion to show anybody. My business is not what it once
was, Mr. Fenton. I have made some rather lucky hits in the way of
picture-dealing in the course of my business career, but I haven't done a
big line lately."

Gilbert was inclined to believe that Jacob Nowell was a much richer man
than he cared to confess, and that the fortune which Marian Nowell might
inherit in the future was a considerable one. The old man had all the