"My dear Colonel," said I, quite touched and pleased by this extreme
kindness, "my dun was but the washerwoman's boy, and Mrs. Brett is in my
debt, if I am not mistaken. Besides, I already have a banker in your
family."

"In my family, my dear Sir?"

"Messrs. Newcome, in Threadneedle Street, are good enough to keep my
money for me when I have any, and I am happy to say they have some of
mine in hand now. I am almost sorry that I am not in want, in order that
I might have the pleasure of receiving a kindness from you." And we shook
hands for the fourth time that morning, and the kind gentleman left me to
rejoin his son.




CHAPTER V

Clive's Uncles


The dinner so hospitably offered by the Colonel was gladly accepted, and
followed by many more entertainments at the cost of that good-natured
friend. He and an Indian chum of his lived at this time at Nerot's Hotel,
in Clifford Street, where Mr. Clive, too, found the good cheer a great
deal more to his taste than the homely, though plentiful, fare at Grey
Friars, at which, of course, when boys, we all turned up our noses,
though many a poor fellow, in the struggles of after-life, has looked