Bumble laid upon the table the papers he had brought to town.

Folding his arms again, he then awaited Mr. Brownlow's

'I fear it is all too true,' said the old gentleman sorrowfully,

after looking over the papers. 'This is not much for your

intelligence; but I would gladly have given you treble the money,

if it had been favourable to the boy.'

It is not improbable that if Mr. Bumble had been possessed of

this information at an earlier period of the interview, he might