labours, brought him his chop and potatoes, and Mr Harding begged for
a pint of sherry. He was impressed with an idea, which was generally
prevalent a few years since, and is not yet wholly removed from the
minds of men, that to order a dinner at any kind of inn, without also
ordering a pint of wine for the benefit of the landlord, was a kind of
fraud,--not punishable, indeed, by law, but not the less abominable
on that account. Mr Harding remembered his coming poverty, and
would willingly have saved his half-crown, but he thought he had no
alternative; and he was soon put in possession of some horrid mixture
procured from the neighbouring public-house.

His chop and potatoes, however, were eatable, and having got over
as best he might the disgust created by the knives and forks, he
contrived to swallow his dinner. He was not much disturbed: one
young man, with pale face and watery fishlike eyes, wearing his hat
ominously on one side, did come in and stare at him, and ask the
girl, audibly enough, "Who that old cock was;" but the annoyance went
no further, and the warden was left seated on his wooden bench in
peace, endeavouring to distinguish the different scents arising from
lobsters, oysters, and salmon.

Unknowing as Mr Harding was in the ways of London, he felt that he had
somehow selected an ineligible dining-house, and that he had better
leave it. It was hardly five o'clock;--how was he to pass the time
till ten? Five miserable hours! He was already tired, and it was
impossible that he should continue walking so long. He thought of
getting into an omnibus, and going out to Fulham for the sake of
coming back in another: this, however, would be weary work, and as he
paid his bill to the woman in the shop, he asked her if there were any
place near where he could get a cup of coffee. Though she did keep a
shellfish supper-house, she was very civil, and directed him to the
cigar divan on the other side of the street.

Mr Harding had not a much correcter notion of a cigar divan than he
had of a London dinner-house, but he was desperately in want of rest,
and went as he was directed. He thought he must have made some
mistake when he found himself in a cigar shop, but the man behind the
counter saw immediately that he was a stranger, and understood what he
wanted. "One shilling, sir,--thank ye, sir,--cigar, sir?--ticket for
coffee, sir;--you'll only have to call the waiter. Up those stairs,
if you please,