to
say, said I; and indeed we relished our veal-cutlets and jam-pudding a
great deal more than Mrs. Hoggarty did her dinner off plate at the
Rookery.

We had a very merry party to Vauxhall, Gus insisting on standing treat;
and you may be certain that my aunt, whose absence was prolonged for
three weeks, was heartily welcome to remain away, for we were much
merrier and more comfortable without her. My little Mary used to make my
breakfast before I went to office of mornings; and on Sundays we had a
holiday, and saw the dear little children eat their boiled beef and
potatoes at the Foundling, and heard the beautiful music: but, beautiful
as it is, I think the children were a more beautiful sight still, and the
look of their innocent happy faces was better than the best sermon. On
week-days Mrs. Titmarsh would take a walk about five o'clock in the
evening on the _left_-hand side of Lamb's Conduit Street (as you go to
Holborn)--ay, and sometimes pursue her walk as far as Snow Hill, when two
young gents from the I. W. D. Fire and Life were pretty sure to meet her;
and then how happily we all trudged off to dinner! Once we came up as a
monster of a man, with high heels and a gold-headed cane, and whiskers
all over his face, was grinning under Mary's bonnet, and chattering to
her, close to Day and Martin's Blacking Manufactory (not near such a
handsome thing then as it is now)--there was the man chattering and
ogling his best, when who should come up but Gus and I? And in the
twinkling of a pegpost, as Lord Duberley says, my gentleman was seized by
the collar of his coat and found himself sprawling under a stand of
hackney-coaches; where all the watermen were grinning at him. The best
of it was, he left his _head of hair and whiskers_ in my hand: but Mary
said, "Don't be hard upon him, Samuel; it's only a Frenchman." And so we
gave him his wig back, which one of the grinning stable-boys put on and
carried to him as he lay in the straw.

He shrieked out something about "arretez," and "Francais," and "champ-
d'honneur;" but we walked on, Gus putting his thumb to his nose and
stretching out his finger at Master Frenchman. This made everybody
laugh; and so the adventure ended.

About ten days after my aunt's departure came a letter from her, of which
I give a copy:--

"My Dear Nephew,--It was my earnest whish e'er this to have returned
to London, where I am sure you and my niece Titmarsh miss me very
much, and