'
'Had it anything to do with silver spoons?'
'Well, it was silver spoons or silver forks, or something of that
kind. I had entirely forgotten the incident. So far as I recollect at
the moment there was a sleight-of-hand man of great expertness in one
of the music halls, and the talk turned upon him. Then Dacre said the
tricks he did were easy, and holding up a spoon or a fork, I don't
remember which, he professed his ability to make it disappear before
our eyes, to be found afterwards in the clothing of some one there
present. Several offered to bet that he could do nothing of the kind,
but he said he would bet with no one but Innis, who sat opposite him.
Innis, with some reluctance, accepted the bet, and then Dacre, with a
great show of the usual conjurer's gesticulations, spread forth his
empty hands, and said we should find the spoon in Innis's pocket, and
there, sure enough, it was. It seemed a proper sleight-of-hand trick,
but we were never able to get him to repeat it.'
'Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbes; I think I see daylight now.'
'If you do you are cleverer than I by a long chalk,' cried Bentham
Gibbes as I took my departure.
I went directly downstairs, and knocked at Mr.
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