ally known,' said Mr Kenwigs, dropping
his voice; 'but her figure was such, at that time, that the sign of the
Britannia, over in the Holloway Road, was painted from it!'

'But only see what it is now,' urged the married lady. 'Does SHE look
like the mother of six?'

'Quite ridiculous,' cried the doctor.

'She looks a deal more like her own daughter,' said the married lady.

'So she does,' assented Mr Lumbey. 'A great deal more.'

Mr Kenwigs was about to make some further observations, most probably in
confirmation of this opinion, when another married lady, who had looked
in to keep up Mrs Kenwigs's spirits, and help to clear off anything in
the eating and drinking way that might be going about, put in her head
to announce that she had just been down to answer the bell, and that
there was a gentleman at the door who wanted to see Mr Kenwigs 'most
particular.'

Shadowy visions of his distinguished relation flitted through the brain
of Mr Kenwigs, as this message was delivered; and under their influence,
he dispatched Morleena to show the gentleman up straightway.

'Why, I do declare,' said Mr Kenwigs, standing opposite the door so as
to get the earliest glimpse of the visitor, as he came upstairs, 'it's
Mr Johnson! How do you find yourself, sir?'

Nicholas shook hands, kissed his old pupils all round, intrusted a large
parcel of toys to the guardianship of Morleena, bowed to the doctor
and the married ladies, and inquired after Mrs Kenwigs in a tone of
interest, which went to the very heart and soul of the nurse, who had
come in to warm some mysterious compound, in a little saucepan over the
fire.

'I ought to make a hundred apologies to you for calling at such a
season,' said Nicholas, 'but I was not aware of it until I had rung the
bell, and my time is so fully occupied now, that I feared it might be
some days before I could possibly come again.'

'No time like the present, sir,' said Mr Kenwigs. 'The sitiwation of Mrs
Kenwigs, sir, is no obstacle to a little conversation between you and
me, I hope?'

'You are very good,' said Nicholas.

At this juncture, proclamation was made by another married lady, that
the baby had begun to eat like anything; whereupon the two married
ladies, already mentioned, rushed tumultuously into the bedroom to
behold him in the act.

'The fact is,' resumed Nicholas, 'that before I left the country, where
I have been for some time past, I undertook to deliver a message to
yo