"My dear boys! My dear EDWINS!"

Thus speaking, Mr. BUMSTEAD sidles eagerly at the new comer, with open
arms, and, in falling upon his neck, does so too heavily, and bears him
with a crash to the ground.

"Oh, see here! this is played out, you know," ejaculates the nephew,
almost suffocated with travelling-shawl and BUMSTEAD.

Mr. BUMSTEAD rises from him slowly and with dignity.

"Excuse me, dear EDWIN, I thought there were two of you."

EDWIN DROOD regains his feet with alacrity and casts aside his shawl.

"Whatever you thought, uncle, I am still a single man, although your way
of coming down on a chap was enough to make me beside myself. Any grub,
JACK?"

With a check upon his enthusiasm and a sudden gloom of expression
amounting almost to a squint, Mr. BUMSTEAD motions with his whole right
side toward an adjacent room in which a table is spread, and leads the
way thither in a half-circle.

"Ah, this is prime!" cries the young fellow, rubbing his hands; the
while he realizes that Mr. BUMSTEAD'S squint is an attempt to include
both himself and the picture over the mantel in the next room in one
incredibly complicated look.

Not much is said during dinner, as the strength of the boarding-house