The world is a wide place, and it was a long
time before the letter came; when it did, the writer was forgotten.
It turned from white to yellow from lying in the Post-office with
nobody to claim it, and in course of time was torn up with five
hundred others, and sold for waste-paper. And now at last, and
when it might least have been expected, here was this Joe Toddyhigh
turning up and claiming acquaintance with a great public character,
who on the morrow would be cracking jokes with the Prime Minister
of England, and who had only, at any time during the next twelve
months, to say the word, and he could shut up Temple Bar, and make
it no thoroughfare for the king himself!
'I am sure I don't know what to say, Mr. Toddyhigh,' said the Lord
Mayor elect; 'I really don't. It's very inconvenient. I'd sooner
have given twenty pound, - it's very inconvenient, really.' - A
thought had come into his mind, that perhaps his old friend might
say something passionate which would give him an excuse for being
angry himself. No such thing. Joe looked at him steadily, but very
mildly, and did not open his lips.
'Of course I shall pay you what I owe you,' said the Lord Mayor
elect, fidgeting in his chair. 'You lent me - I think it was a
shilling or some small coin - when we parted company, and that of
course I shall pay with good interest. I can pay my way with any
man, and always have done. If you look into the Mansion House the
day after to-morrow, - some time after dusk, - and ask for my
private clerk, you'll find he has a draft for you.
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