286  LIFE  AND  ADVENTURES  OF

''Oh!  is  that  all?"

"  No,"  said  Newman.     "  There's  a  fly  in  it."

"There  are  a  good  many  cobwebs  here,"  observed  Arthur
Gride.
"  So  there  are  in  our  place,"  returned  Newman;  "and  flies
too."

Newman  appeared  to  derive  great  entertainment  from  this
repartee,  and  to  the  great  discomposure  of  Arthur  Gride's
nerves  produced  a  series  of  sharp  cracks  from  his  finger-joints,
resembling  the  noise  of  a  distant  discharge  of  small  artillery.
Arthur  succeeded  in  finishing  his  reply  to  Ralph's  note,  nev-
ertheless, and  at  length  handed  it  over  to  the  eccentric  mes-
senger for  delivery.
"That's  it,  Mr.  Noggs,"  said  Gride.
Newman  gave  a  nod,  put  it  in  his  hat,  and  was  shuf^g
away,  when  Gride,  whose  doting  delight  knew  no  bounds,
beckoned  him  back  again,  and  said,  in  a  shrill  whisper,  and
with  a  grin  which  puckered  up  his  whole  face  and  almost
obscured  his  eyes :  —

"  Will  you  —  will  you  take  a  little  drop  of  something  — just
a  taste?"

In  good  fellowship  (if  Arthur  Gride  had  been  capable  of  it)
Newman  would  not  have  drunk  with  him  one  bubble  of  the
richest  wine  that  was  ever  made ;  but  to  see  what  he  would  be
at,  and  to  punish  him  as  much  as  he  could,  he  accepted  the
offer  immediately.
Arthur  Gride,  therefore,  again  applied  himself  to  the  press,
and  from  a  shelf  laden  with  tall  Flemish  drinking-glasses,  and
quaint  bottles,  some  with  necks  like  so  many  storks,  and
others  with  square  Dutch-built  bodies  and  short,  fat,  apoplec-
tic throats,  took  down  one  dusty  bottle  of  promising  appea^
ance,  and  two  glasses  of  curiously  small  size.
