After All, Or Thrice Won.

sensibilities were as coarse as his maimers , and you have his whole character before you . Certainly not a very enviable one ; but his master placed full trust in his integrity and steady character ; he was only acquainted with his success , ancl cared little how he achieA ed it . Again tbe biscuit-cruncher growls from bis loft ( a high desk made especiallfor the book-keeper , with the air of a pulpit about it ; to transact the

y cashiering business he has to descend some three steps to a lower desk ) . This time he addresses himself to the invoicing clerk , a young man of nineteen . " Where ' s that oil iiwoice , Humberton ? I ' ve been waiting this last halfhour for it . You young men now-a-days seem to think of nothing but gadding about , and leaving all your work until youVe no time to do it , instead of setting to at once and getting it clone . It ought to have been finished before now . "

"You'll excuse me , Mr . Bulliker , but I have just come back from getting tbe weights , before which the invoice could not be made . " " Eh ? What ? Well , you should have got them before ; that ' s the way , always driving things to the last minute . " "I have done nothing of the sort , " retorted Humberton ; " I went to get them at once . "

" Well , let me have tbe invoice directly . ' "All right ; Avhen IVe made it out , " said Arthur Humberton , who was annoyed at the cashier ' s manner , although he Avas pretty well used to it . " Don ' t you hurry , old man , " said Merrisslope , in a stage whisper . He was a youth of about eighteen , faff and slim , ancl affected a languid lisp . His duty was to look after the goods that arrived and send them forward to their various destinations . He bad been left rich at the age of seventeenancl bad

conse-, quently a careless devil-may-care way of doing business ; he was in fact independent of it , ancl it might go to the dogs for aught he recked . He was one of the "jolly-good-fellow " sort , who spend their money OA er their friends to obtain their good opinion , but with very little true friendship in him . " If we are both of us ' orpblings , ' as they say , we can' stick up ' for number oneand let all the Bullikers in the world go to that place which smelleth

, so uncommonly strong of brimstone . " Mervyn Merrisslope took every occasion to A ent his natural verbosity , sometimes with ridiculous effect . For instance , he would describe ink as "the filthy ejection of an antiquated cuttle fish , " or "the bitter expression of a vindictive gall ! Oh ! thou A-ile liquid , bitter , sarcastic , venomous ; blacker than the fiend himself , why AA-ast thou ever invented ? What good end dost thou serve ?

What dark plots canst thou not concoct , what A < ile deeds relate , what lives drown in everlasting perdition ? Tool of the devil , why was I ever brought into contact with thy contaminating drops ? Ye gods , must I endure all this ? Ha , ha ! " Thus would he apostrophize , or , as he termed it , moralize , to tbe infinite amusement of his fellow clerks ; indeed , be was the life ancl soul of tbe office ,

full of gaiety and frolic , ancl ready for anything- but work . Totally opposite was Herbert Recltaper , a deliberate plod ; one who allotted out his time to a minute , and found a pleasure in work . He did everything by rule , ancl it was difficult to make him depart from his set principles and habits . At nine precisely , not a minute before nor a minute after , he was to be found at his desk ; and he strove to be as punctual in his time of leaving , though he did not always succeed . His attention to his work made him rather a favourite Avith Mr . Bulliker , though Recltaper did not bide his dislike of the man .

I bus we have pictured the whole staff of the office , with the exception of the "junior , " as they called Timoth y Tweedle , a shock-headed lad of about thirteen . His business was to run errands , post tbe letters , and attend to small matters in the office . When not engaged in any of these ways he was generally spinning bis top or collecting foreign postage stamps .