"That's the rub, for he would be unwilling," I replied, and when I went a point farther and explained the nature of them, Mrs. Emblem agreed with this opinion.
"Well, your la'ship," says she, with a brave fidelity for which I was truly grateful; "if such a one is to be found, you can take it that I'll find him."
"Then you are a dear, good soul," I told her, warmly, for surely it was encouraging to know that I had one friend in a world of enemies.
I never enquired too deeply into the means that were adopted to procure the services of the celebrated Mr. Snark. How Mrs. Polly Emblem came to hear of him at all, or in what manner she contrived to coax him from his remote and modest lodging in the Ratcliffd Highway, from whence for years he had defied the whole of Bow Street to dislodge him, history hath not deponed unto this present. Yet from the moment the dear, devoted Mrs. Polly made that promise to me on that morning of culminating miseries, she never ceased to strive to make herself the equal of her resolution. Some hours later she came to me and said:
"I've just heard of the very man, your la'ship. He's not a very religious man, your la'ship, but he's an awful knowing one, they say."
Thereupon she dispatched more than one emissary to scour the most questionable haunts in London for him, and every hour or so the honest creature brought me very excellent reports to restore me to a cheerful spirit.
