a great deal of pleasure.

Before I left London I had, to say the truth, looked round me for a
proper place, befitting persons of our small income; and Gus Hoskins and
I, who hunted after office-hours in couples, bad fixed on a very snug
little cottage in Camden Town, where there was a garden that certain
_small people_ might play in when they came: a horse and gig-house, if
ever we kept one,--and why not, in a few years?--and a fine healthy air,
at a reasonable distance from 'Change; all for 30_l_. a year. I had
described this little spot to Mary as enthusiastically as Sancho
describes Lizias to Don Quixote; and my dear wife was delighted with the
prospect of housekeeping there, vowed she would cook all the best dishes
herself (especially jam-pudding, of which I confess I am very fond), and
promised Gus that he should dine with us at Clematis Bower every Sunday:
only he must not smoke those horrid cigars. As for Gus, he vowed he
would have a room in the neighbourhood too, for he could not bear to go
back to Bell Lane, where we two had been so happy together; and so good-
natured Mary said she would ask my sister Winny to come and keep her
company. At which Hoskins blushed, and said, "Pooh! nonsense now."

But all our hopes of a happy snug Clematis Lodge were dashed to the
ground on our return from our little honeymoon excursion; when Mrs.
Hoggarty informed us that she was sick of the country, and was determined
to go to London with her dear nephew and niece, and keep house for them,
and introduce them to her friends in the metropolis.

What could we do? We wished her at--Bath: certainly not in London. But
there was no help for it; and we were obliged to bring her: for, as my
mother said, if we offended her, her fortune would go out of our family;
and were we two young people not likely to want it?

So we came to town rather dismally in the carriage, posting the whole
way; for the carriage must be brought, and a person of my aunt's rank in
life could not travel by the stage. And I had to pay 14_l_. for the
posters, which pretty nearly exhausted all my little hoard of cash.

First we went into lodgings,--into three sets in three weeks. We
quarrelled with the first landlady, because my aunt vowed that she cut a
slice off the leg of mutton which was served for our dinner; from the
second lodgings we went because aunt vowed the maid would steal the
candles; from the third we went because Aunt Hoggarty came down to