The House of Cobwebs and Other Stories

seated at the table, with a mass of papers before him, on which he laboured as though correcting exercises. They were much of an age, and that about thirty, but w

e man in the c

ply to the urgent letters-mind you write in the proper tone to Dixon-as soapy as you can make it. Tell Miss Brewer we can't r

bit the end of his wood

ed. 'But, look here,

do

Look here, give me half-a-crown. I have absolute need of it.

hen I offered it to you. It's no good your looking to me for money. I can do no more myself than j

oor, but before openin

do you? Well, there's sixpen

le, leaning back, stared gloomily at th

er part of Mr. Starkey's work. The tutorial business was but moderately successful; still, it kept its proprietor in cigarettes, and enabled him to pass some hours a day at a club, where he was convinced that before long some better chance in life would offer itself to him. Having always been a lazy dog, Starkey regarded himself as an example of industry unrewarded; being as selfish a fellow as one could meet, he reproached himself with the

he did competently and honestly for some time without a grumble. Beginning with a certain gratitude to his employer, though without any liking, he soon grew to detest the man, and had much ado to keep up a show of decent civility in their intercourse. Of better birth and bre

ell manage to do all the work myself. Still, if you think it worth your while, there's no doubt we shall get on capitally together, and, of course, I need not say, as soon as our