s bays; the
Lieutenant (who had shaken me cordially by the hand, and whose big dog
did not make the slightest attempt at biting me this time) beat his pony
till its fat sides lathered again; and thus in this, I may say,
unexampled procession, I arrived in triumph at our village.

My dear mother and the girls,--Heaven bless them!--nine of them in their
nankeen spencers (I had something pretty in my trunk for each of
them)--could not afford a carriage, but had posted themselves on the road
near the village; and there was such a waving of hands and handkerchiefs:
and though my aunt did not much notice them, except by a majestic toss of
the head, which is pardonable in a woman of her property, yet Mary Smith
did even more than I, and waved her hands as much as the whole nine. Ah!
how my dear mother cried and blessed me when we met, and called me her
soul's comfort and her darling boy, and looked at me as if I were a
paragon of virtue and genius: whereas I was only a very lucky young
fellow, that by the aid of kind friends had stepped rapidly into a very
pretty property.

I was not to stay with my mother,--that had been arranged beforehand; for
though she and Mrs. Hoggarty were not remarkably good friends, yet Mother
said it was for my benefit that I should stay with my aunt, and so give
up the pleasure of having me with her: and though hers was much the
humbler house of the two, I need not say I preferred it far to Mrs.
Hoggarty's more splendid one; let alone the horrible Rosolio, of which I
was obliged now to drink gallons.

It was to Mrs. H.'s then we were driven: she had prepared a great dinner
that evening, and hired an extra waiter, and on getting out of the
carriage, she gave a sixpence to Tom Wheeler, saying that was for
himself, and that she would settle with Mrs. Rincer for the horses
afterwards. At which Tom flung the sixpence upon the ground, swore most
violently, and was very justly called by my aunt an "impertinent fellow."

She had taken such a liking to me that she would hardly bear me out of
her sight. We used to sit for morning after morning over her accounts,
debating for hours together the propriety of selling the Slopperton
property; but no arrangement was come to yet about it, for Hodge and
Smithers could not get the price she wanted. And, moreover, she vowed
that at her decease she would leave every shilling to me.

Hodge and Smithers, too, gave a grand party, and treated me with marked
consid