being
brought to the scaffold and asked if he was sorry for what he had done,
he replied yes, he was sorry for having let 'em off so easy, and hoped
all Christian husbands would pardon him the offence. Let this be a
warning to all young ladies to be particular in the character of the
gentlemen of their choice. Observe that his fingers are curled as if
in the act of tickling, and that his face is represented with a wink,
as he appeared when committing his barbarous murders.'

When Nell knew all about Mr Packlemerton, and could say it without
faltering, Mrs Jarley passed on to the fat man, and then to the thin
man, the tall man, the short man, the old lady who died of dancing at a
hundred and thirty-two, the wild boy of the woods, the woman who
poisoned fourteen families with pickled walnuts, and other historical
characters and interesting but misguided individuals. And so well did
Nell profit by her instructions, and so apt was she to remember them,
that by the time they had been shut up together for a couple of hours,
she was in full possession of the history of the whole establishment,
and perfectly competent to the enlightenment of visitors.

Mrs Jarley was not slow to express her admiration at this happy result,
and carried her young friend and pupil to inspect the remaining
arrangements within doors, by virtue of which the passage had been
already converted into a grove of green-baize hung with the inscription
she had already seen (Mr Slum's productions), and a highly ornamented
table placed at the upper end for Mrs Jarley herself, at which she was
to preside and take the money, in company with his Majesty King George
the Third, Mr Grimaldi as clown, Mary Queen of Scots, an anonymous
gentleman of the Quaker persuasion, and Mr Pitt holding in his hand a
correct model of the bill for the imposition of the window duty. The
preparations without doors had not been neglected either; a nun of
great personal attractions was telling her beads on the little portico
over the door; and a brigand with the blackest possible head of hair,
and the clearest possible complexion, was at that moment going round
the town in a cart, consulting the miniature of a lady.

It now only remained that Mr Slum's compositions should be judiciously
distributed; that the pathetic effusions should find their way to all
private houses and tradespeople; and that the parody commencing 'If I
know'd a donkey,' should be confined to the taverns, an