e down with Mrs. Todgers
from the roof of the house; leaving the youthful porter to close the
door and follow them down-stairs: who being of a playful temperament,
and contemplating with a delight peculiar to his sex and time of life
any chance of dashing himself into small fragments, lingered behind to
walk upon the wall around the roof.

It was the second day of their stay in London, and by this time the
Misses Pecksniff and Mrs. Todgers were becoming very friendly, insomuch
that the last-named lady had already told the story of three early
disappointments in love; and had furthermore given her young friends a
general account of the life, conduct, and character of Mr. Todgers: who,
it seemed, had cut his life as a husband rather short, by unlawfully
running away from his happiness, and staying for a time in foreign
countries as a bachelor.

"Your pa was once a little particular in his attentions, my dears," said
Mrs. Todgers, "but to be your ma was too much happiness denied me. You'd
hardly know who this was done for, perhaps?"

She called their attention to an oval miniature, like a little blister,
which was tacked up over the kettle-holder, and in which there was a
dreamy shadowing forth of her own visage.

"It's a speaking likeness!" cried the two Misses Pecksniff.

"It was considered so once," said Mrs. Todgers, warming herself in a
gentlemanly manner at the fire: "but I hardly thought you would have
known it, my loves."

They would have known it anywhere. If they could have met with it in the
street or seen it in a shop-window, they would have cried, "Good
gracious! Mrs. Todgers!"

"Being in charge of a boarding-house like this makes sad havoc with the
features, my dear Misses Pecksniff," said Mrs. Todgers. "The gravy alone
is enough to add twenty years to one's age, I do assure you."

"Lor!" cried the two Misses Pecksniff.

"The anxiety of that one thing, my dears," said Mrs. Todgers, "keeps the
mind continually upon the stretch. There is no such passion in human
nature as the passion for gravy among business men. It's nothing to say
a joint won't yield--a whole animal wouldn't yield--the amount of gravy
they expect each day at dinner. And what I have undergone in
consequence," cried Mrs. Todgers, raising her eyes and shaking her head,
"no one would believe!"

"Just like Mr. Pinch, Mercy!" said Charity. "We have always noticed it
in him, you remember?"

"Yes, my dear," giggled Mercy, "but we have n