ad danced with her, he had supped with her--he was here, on board
the boat. Where was that dragoon? I looked round for him. In quite a
far corner,--but so that he could command the Kicklebury party, I
thought,--he was eating his breakfast, the great healthy oaf, and
consuming one broiled egg after another.

In the course of the afternoon, all parties, as it may be supposed,
emerged upon deck again, and Miss Fanny and her mamma began walking the
quarter-deck with a quick pace, like a couple of post-captains. When
Miss Fanny saw me, she stopped and smiled, and recognized the gentleman
who had amused her so at Mrs. Perkins's. What a dear sweet creature
Eliza Perkins was! They had been at school together. She was going to
write to Eliza everything that happened on the voyage.

"EVERYTHING?" I said, in my particularly sarcastic manner.

"Well, everything that was worth telling. There was a great number
of things that were very stupid, and of people that were very stupid.
Everything that YOU say, Mr. Titmarsh, I am sure I may put down. You
have seen Mr. Titmarsh's funny books, mamma?"

Mamma said she had heard--she had no doubt they were very amusing. "Was
not that--ahem--Lady Knightsbridge, to whom I saw you speaking, sir?"

"Yes; she is going to nurse Lord Knightsbridge, who has the gout at
Rougetnoirbourg."

"Indeed! how very fortunate! what an extraordinary coincidence! We are
going too," said Lady Kicklebury.

I remarked "that everybody was going to Rougetnoirbourg this year; and I
heard of two gentlemen--Count Carambole and Colonel Cannon--who had been
obliged to sleep there on a billiard-table for want of a bed."

"My son Kicklebury--are you acquainted with Sir Thomas Kicklebury?" her
ladyship said, with great stateliness--"is at Noirbourg, and will
take lodgings for us. The springs are particularly recommended for my
daughter, Mrs. Milliken and, at great personal sacrifice, I am going
thither myself: but what will not a mother do, Mr. Titmarsh? Did I
understand you to say that you have the--the entree at Knightsbridge
House? The parties are not what they used to be, I am told. Not that
I have any knowledge. I am but a poor country baronet's widow, Mr.
Titmarsh; though the Kickleburys date from Henry III., and MY family is
not of the most modern in the country. You have heard of General Guff,
my father, perhaps? aide-de-camp to the Duke of York, and wounded by his
Royal Highness's side at the bombardment of Val