for three pounds! And a jade in tinsel, just entering on her teens, to
ask three pounds for what? for becoming immortal on the canvas of Francis
Vance?--bother!"

Here Vance felt a touch on his shoulder. He turned round quickly, as a
man out of temper does under similar circumstances, and beheld the sweat
face of the Cobbler.

"Well, master, did not she act fine?--how d'ye like her?"

"Not much in her natural character; but she sets a mighty high value on
herself."

"Anan, I don't take you."

"She'll not catch me taking her! Three pounds!--three kingdoms! Stay,"
cried Lionel to the Cobbler; "did not you say she lodged with you? Are
you Mr. Merle?"

"Merle's my name, and she do lodge with me,--Willow Lane."

"Come this way, then, a few yards down the road,--more quiet. Tell me
what the child means, if you can;" and Lionel related the offer of his
friend, the reply of the manager, and the grasping avarice of Miss Juliet
Araminta.

The Cobbler made no answer; and when the young friends, surprised at his
silence, turned to look at him, they saw he was wiping his eyes with his
sleeves.