'That's nonsense,' said Harry, getting rather red in the face,
and feeling rather angry.

'Indeed I do; and so, I am convinced, would most men. You need
not murder me, man. You want me to make up to Linda, and surely
it will be better that I should admire my own wife than yours.'

'Oh! you may admire whom you like; but to say that she is
prettier than Gertrude--why, you know, it is nonsense.'

'Very well, my dear fellow; then to oblige you, I'll fall in love
with Gertrude.'

'I know you won't do that,' said Harry, 'for you are not so very
fond of each other; but, joking apart, I do wish so you would
make up to Linda.'

'Well, I will when _my_ aunt leaves _me_ L200 a year.'

There was no answering this; so the two men changed the
conversation as they walked up together from the boat wharf to
the office of the Weights and Measures.

It was just at this time that fortune and old Mr. Tudor, of the
Shropshire parsonage, brought Charley Tudor to reside with our
two heroes. For the first month, or six weeks, Charley was
ruthlessly left by his companions to get through his Sundays as
best he could. It is to be hoped that he spent them in divine
worship; but it may, we fear, be surmised with more probability,
that he paid his devotions at the shrine of some very inferior