and sings._) "The Cure, the Cure, the Cure, &c."

(_Great applause: from the Signor especially._)

_Enter WAITER._

(_More applause. An elderly lady with eye-glasses asks audibly if that
isn't _Captain Byrton_?_)

WAITER (_putting newspaper on table_).

Aachen Zeitung, Herr Cox.

(_More applause for his German accent._)

[Illustration: THE WAITER.]

COX.

Nein danky. I mean, no thank you. Nix--nein--don't want any.

WAITER.

Nein, Herr Cox, zis ees de baber--de daily baber at Aix. Beebels come.

[_Exit._

(_The Signor here observes aloud, "_Eet is so like ven I----_"
Madame says, sternly, "_Hush, Mr. Regniati_," and he contents
himself by finishing with a wink privately to me._)

COX.

Ja. Goot. I flatter myself I'm getting on with my German. Here's the
arrival column .. English .. I look at this every day ... because ... um
(_reading it_) ... "Mr. and Mrs. Bloater, from Yarmouth, and all the
little Bloaters ... Major Bouncer" ... goodness gracious! how
extraordinary!... Major Bouncer ... Oh it can't be the same, it must be
one of his ancestors ... or his posterity ... "Major Bouncer of the
Royal Banbury Light Horse" ... pooh! fancy Bouncer on a light horse!

Ride a cock horse
To Banbury gorse
To see Major Bouncer
Upon a light horse;
Rings on his fingers ....

Stop a minute ... Rings ... Ah! (_reads_) "accompanied by Mrs. Bouncer,
also of the Banbury Light Horse." Of course, that settles it. It is
_not_ old Bouncer. Next, "Mr. and Mrs. Winkle, from Pinner." Ah! at
last ... "Arrived at the Hotel, der Schwein und die Pfeife," that's
here--"Mrs. Penelope Anne Knox." I only heard it the other day at
Margate. There she sat. Radiant as ever. A widow for the second time.
Originally widow of William Wiggins, of Margate and Ramsgate, and now
widow of Nathaniel Knox, of the Docks, with a heap--a perfect heap--of
money. Then my old passion returned. I determined to propose to her. I
was about to do so, when on the very morning that I was going to throw
myself at her feet, I caught this infernal rheumatism, which laid me on
my back. When I recovered she was gone. "Where to?" says I. "Aix!" says
they. My spirits mounted. I took a vast amount of pains to get to Aix,
and here I am. I had heard of some property in Venice, which belonged to
the Coxes some hundreds of years ago,