med his knife
and fork as a practical assurance that the beer had wrought no bad
effect upon his appetite.

"The lady of the caravan looked on approvingly for some time and
then said,

"'Have you nearly finished?'

"Wery nigh, mum,' and indeed after scraping the dish all round with
his knife and carrying the choice brown morsels to his mouth, and
after taking such a scientific pull at the stone bottle that, by
degrees almost imperceptible to the sight, his head went farther
and farther back until he lay nearly at his full length upon the
ground, this gentleman declared himself quite disengaged, and came
forth from his retreat.

"'I hope I haven't hurried you, George,' said his mistress, who
appeared to have a great sympathy with his late pursuit.

"'If you have,' returned the fellow, wisely reserving himself for
any favourable contingency, 'we must make it up next time, that's
all.'"

Mrs. Gamp has a touch of sympathy in her exuberance. Contemplating going
down to the country with the Dickens' company of actors, she tells us--

"Which Mrs. Harris's own words to me was these, 'Sairey Gamp,' she
says, 'why not go to Margate? Srimps,' says that dear creetur, 'is
to your liking. Sairey, why not go to Margate for a week, bring
your constitution up with srimps, and come back to them loving arts
as knows and wallies you, blooming? Sairey,' Mrs. Harris says,
'you are but poorly. Don't denige it, Mrs. Gamp, for books is in
your looks. You must have rest. Your mind,' she says, 'is too
strong for you; it gets you down and treads upon you, Sairey. It is
useless to disguige the fact--the blade is a wearing out the
sheets.' 'Mrs. Harris,' I says to her, 'I could not undertake to
say, and I will not deceive you ma'am, that I am not the woman I
could wish to be. The time of worrit as I had with Mrs. Colliber,
the baker's lady, which was so bad in her mind with her first, that
she would not so much as look at bottled stout, and kept to gruel
through the month, has agued me, Mrs. Harris. But, ma'am,' I says
to her, 'talk not of Margate, for if I do go anywhere it is
elsewheres, and not there.' 'Sairey,' says Mrs. Harris solemn,
'whence this mystery? If I have ever deceived the hardest-working,
soberest, and best of women, mention it.' ... 'Mrs. Harris,