"Not that I know of. I have not come from London this morning, nor seen
the papers."

"Oh!--there's a strange-looking fellow following us; but perhaps he is
your servant?"

"Not so, but my travelling companion--indeed my guide. In fact, I come
to Ouzelford in the faint hope of discovering there a poor old friend of
mine, of whom I have long been in search."

"Perhaps the Jessops can help you; they know everybody at Ouzelford. But
now I meet you thus by surprise, Mr. George, I should very much like to
ask your advice on a matter which has been much on my mind the last
twenty-four hours, and which concerns a person I contrived to discover at
Ouzelford, though I certainly was not in search of him--a person about
whom you and I had a conversation a few years ago, when you were staying
with your worthy father."

"Eh?" said George, quickly; "whom do you speak of?" "That singular
vagabond who took me in, you remember--called himself Chapman--real name
William Losely, a returned convict. You would have it that he was
innocent, though the man himself had pleaded guilty on his trial."

"His whole character belied his lips then. Oh, Mr. Hartopp, that man
commit the crime imputed to him!--a planned, deliberate robbery--an
ungrateful, infamous breach of trust! That man--that! he who rejects the
money he does not earn, even when pressed on him by anxious imploring
friends---he who has now gone voluntarily forth, aged and lonely, to
wring his bread from the humblest calling rather than incur the risk of