the end. I shall
be, O most heartily glad, when that time comes! But I must say that the
intelligence and warmth of the audiences are an immense sustainment, and
one that always sets me up. Sometimes before I go down to read
(especially when it is in the day), I am so oppressed by having to do it
that I feel perfectly unequal to the task. But the people lift me out of
this directly; and I find that I have quite forgotten everything but
them and the book, in a quarter of an hour."

The reception that awaited him at Manchester had very special warmth in
it, occasioned by an adverse tone taken in the comment of one of the
Manchester daily papers on the letter which by a breach of confidence
had been then recently printed. "My violated letter" Dickens always
called it. "When I came to Manchester on Saturday I found seven hundred
stalls taken! When I went into the room at night 2500 people had paid,
and more were being turned away from every door. The welcome they gave
me was astounding in its affectionate recognition of the late trouble,
and fairly for once unmanned me. I never saw such a sight or heard such
a sound. When they had thoroughly done it, they settled down to enjoy
themselves; and certainly did enjoy themselves most heartily to the last
minute." Nor, for the rest of his English tour, in any of the towns that
remained, had he reason to complain of any want of hearty greeting. At
Sheffield great crowds came in excess of the places. At Leeds the hall
overflowed in half an hour. At Hull the vast concourse had to be
addressed by Mr. Smith on the gallery stairs, and additional Readings
had to be given, day and night, "for the people out of town and for the
people in town."

The net profit to himself, thus far, had been upwards of three hundred
pounds a week;[233] but this was nothing to the success in Scotland,
where his profit in a week, with all expenses paid, was five hundred
pounds. The pleasure was enhanced, too, by the presence of his two
daughters, who had joined him over the Border. At first the look of
Edinburgh was not promising. "We began with, for us, a poor room. . . .
But the effect of that reading (it was the _Chimes_) was immense; and on
the next night, for _Little Dombey_, we had a full room. It is our
greatest triumph everywhere. Next night (_Poor Traveller_, _Boots_, and
_Gamp_) we turned away hundreds upon hundreds of people; and last night,
for the _Carol_, in spite of advertisements in the morni