ain Fizgig, and after Mr. Tidd had paid his 20,000_l_. and
Fizgig's great relations had joined in some of our Director's companies,
Mr. Brough declared he believed that Captain Fizgig's views were
mercenary, and put him to the proof at once, by saying that he must take
Miss Brough without a farthing, or not have her at all. Whereupon
Captain Fizgig got an appointment in the colonies, and Miss Brough became
more ill-humoured than ever. But I could not help thinking she was rid
of a bad bargain, and pitying poor Tidd, who came back to the charge
again more love-sick than ever, and was rebuffed pitilessly by Miss
Belinda. Her father plainly told Tidd, too, that his visits were
disagreeable to Belinda, and though he must always love and value him, he
begged him to discontinue his calls at the Rookery. Poor fellow! he had
paid his 20,000_l_. away for nothing! for what was six per cent. to him
compared to six per cent. and the hand of Miss Belinda Brough?

Well, Mr. Brough pitied the poor love-sick swain, as he called me, so
much, and felt such a warm sympathy in my well-being, that he insisted on
my going down to Somersetshire with a couple of months' leave; and away I
went, as happy as a lark, with a couple of brand-new suits from Von
Stiltz's in my trunk (I had them made, looking forward to a certain
event), and inside the trunk Lieutenant Smith's fleecy hosiery; wrapping
up a parcel of our prospectuses and two letters from John Brough, Esq.,
to my mother our worthy annuitant, and to Mrs. Hoggarty our excellent
shareholder. Mr. Brough said I was all that the fondest father could
wish, that he considered me as his own boy, and that he earnestly begged
Mrs. Hoggarty not to delay the sale of her little landed property, as
land was high now and _must fall_; whereas the West Diddlesex Association
shares were (comparatively) low, and must inevitably, in the course of a
year or two, double, treble, quadruple their present value.

In this way I was prepared, and in this way I took leave of my dear Gus.
As we parted in the yard of the "Bolt-in-Tun," Fleet Street, I felt that
I never should go back to Salisbury Square again, and had made my little
present to the landlady's family accordingly. She said I was the
respectablest gentleman she had ever had in her house: nor was that
saying much, for Bell Lane is in the Rules of the Fleet, and her lodgers
used commonly to be prisoners on Rule from that place. As for Gus, the
poor f