would be always quartered."

"Ah, gentlemen," said Clifford, who had been for some time silent, "it is
more than probable that both your wishes may be heard, and that ye may be
drawn, quartered, and something else, too, in the very place of your
desert!"

"Well," said Tomlinson, smiling gently, "I am happy to hear you jest
again, Captain, though it be at our expense."

"Expense!" echoed Ned; "ay, there's the rub! Who the deuce is to pay the
expense of our dinner?"

"And our dinners for the last week?" added Tomlinson. "This empty nut
looks ominous; it certainly has one grand feature strikingly resembling
my pockets."

"Heigho!" sighed Long Ned, turning his waistcoat commodities inside-out
with a significant gesture, while the accomplished Tomlinson, who was
fond of plaintive poetry, pointed to the disconsolate vacua, and
exclaimed,

"E'en while Fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart desponding asks if this be joy!"

"In truth, gentlemen," added he, solemnly depositing his nut-crackers on
the table, and laying, as was his wont when about to be luminous, his
right finger on his sinister palm,--"in truth, gentlemen, affairs are
growing serious with us, and it becomes necessary forthwith to devise
some safe means of procuring a decent competence."