ommercial undertaking, the project throughout
proving successful far beyond the most sanguine anticipations. Though
the strain upon his energies, there can be no doubt of it, was very
considerable, the Reader had brought vividly before him in recompense,
on Eighty-Seven distinct occasions, the most startling proofs of his
popularity--the financial results, besides this, when all was over,
yielding substantial evidence of his having, indeed, won "golden
opinions" from all sorts of people.

His provincial tour, it has been seen, closed at Brighton on the 13th of
November. Immediately after this, it was announced that three Christmas
Readings would be given in London at St. Martin's Hall--the first and
second on the Christmas Eve and the Boxing Day of 1858, those being
respectively Friday and Monday, and the third on Twelfth Night,
Thursday, the 6th of January, 1859. Upon each of these occasions the
"Christmas Carol" and the "Trial from Pickwick," were given to audiences
that were literally overflowing, crowds of applicants each evening
failing to obtain admittance. In consequence of this, three other
Readings were announced for Thursday, the 13th, for Thursday, the 20th,
and for Friday, the 28th of January--the "Carol" and "Trial" being fixed
for the last time on the 13th; the Reading on the second of these
three supplementary nights being "Little Dombey" and the "Trial from
Pickwick;" the last of the three including within it, besides the
"Trial," "Mrs. Gamp" and the "Poor Traveller." As affording
conclusive proof of the sustained success of the Readings as a popular
entertainment, it may here be added that advertisements appeared on the
morrow of the one last mentioned, to the effect that "it has been found
unavoidable to appoint two more Readings of the 'Christmas Carol' and
the 'Trial from Pickwick'"--those two, by the way, being, from first to
last, the most attractive of all the Readings. On Thursday, the 3rd,
and on Tuesday, the 8th of February, the two last of these supplementary
Readings in London, the aggregate of which had thus been extended from
Three to Eight, were duly delivered. And in this way were completed the
111 Readings already referred to as having been given under Mr. Arthur
Smith's management.

Upwards of two years and a half then elapsed without any more of the
Readings being undertaken, either in the provinces or in the metropolis.
During 1860, in fact, Great Expectations was appearing from week