en
stopped.

"I am a little shaken," he wrote on the 9th of January, "by my journey
to Birmingham to give away the Institution's prizes on Twelfth Night,
but I am in good heart; and, notwithstanding Lowe's worrying scheme for
collecting a year's taxes in a lump, which they tell me is damaging
books, pictures, music, and theatres beyond precedent, our 'let' at St.
James's Hall is enormous." He opened with _Copperfield_ and the
_Pickwick Trial_; and I may briefly mention, from the notes taken by Mr.
Beard and placed at my disposal, at what cost of exertion to himself he
gratified the crowded audiences that then and to the close made these
evenings memorable. His ordinary pulse on the first night was at 72; but
never on any subsequent night was lower than 82, and had risen on the
later nights to more than 100. After _Copperfield_ on the first night it
went up to 96, and after _Marigold_ on the second to 99; but on the
first night of the _Sikes and Nancy_ scenes (Friday the 21st of January)
it went from 80 to 112, and on the second night (the 1st of February) to
118. From this, through the six remaining nights, it never was lower
than 110 after the first piece read; and after the third and fourth
readings of the _Oliver Twist_ scenes it rose, from 90 to 124 on the
15th of February, and from 94 to 120 on the 8th of March; on the former
occasion, after twenty minutes' rest, falling to 98, and on the latter,
after fifteen minutes' rest, falling to 82. His ordinary pulse on
entering the room, during these last six nights, was more than once
over 100, and never lower than 84; from which it rose, after _Nickleby_
on the 22nd of February, to 112. On the 8th of February, when he read
_Dombey_, it had risen from 91 to 114; on the 1st of March, after
_Copperfield_, it rose from 100 to 124; and when he entered the room on
the last night it was at 108, having risen only two beats more when the
reading was done. The pieces on this occasion were the _Christmas
Carol_, followed by the _Pickwick Trial_; and probably in all his life
he never read so well. On his return from the States, where he had to
address his effects to audiences composed of immense numbers of people,
a certain loss of refinement had been observable; but the old delicacy
was now again delightfully manifest, and a subdued tone, as well in the
humorous as the serious portions, gave something to all the reading as
of a quiet sadness of farewell. The charm of this was at it