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’ bonnet.
290 g ' CHARLES .1)IOKEN;S" Woiezrs.
-I comprehended the full extent of her generous feeling
towards my dear wife. . V - . --
“ These are early days, Trot,” she pursued, “ and Rome
was not built in a day, nor in a year. ‘You have chosen
freely for yourself ;" a cloud passed over her face fora
moment, I" thought ; v“ and you have chosen a very pretty
and a very affectionate creature. It will be your duty,
- and it will be your pleasure too-of course I know that;
.I am not delivering a lecture-to estimate her (astyou
chose her) by the qualities she has, and not by the quali-
tics she may not have. ‘The latter you must develope in
her, if you can. And if you cannot, child,” here myaunt
rubbed her nose, “ you must just accustom yourself. to do ‘
without ’em. But remember, my dear, your future is
between you two. No one can -assist you; you are to
work it out for yourselves. This is marriage, Trot;
and Heaven bless you both, in it, for a pair of babes in
the wood asyouar'e!’.’r ' , . -. I i : ‘
My aunt said this in a sprightly way, and gave me a
kiss to ratify the blessing. ’ . l . . ,
“ Now,” said she, "‘ light my little lantern, and see me
into my band-box by the garden path ;” for there was .a
communication between our cottages in that direction.
“Give Betsey 'l‘rotwood’s love to Blossom, when you
come back ; and whatever you do, -Trot, neverdream of
setting Betsey up as a scare-crow, for if I ever saw herin
the glass, she’s quite grim enough and gaunt enough in
her privatecapacity l” ' , A .
W'itli this my aunt tied her head up in a handkerchief,
with which she was accustomed to make a bundle of it on
such occasions ; and I escorted her home. As she stood
in her garden, holding up her little ‘lantern to light'me
back, I thought her observation of me had an anxious air
again ; but I was toomucli occupied in pondering on what;
she had said, and too much impressed-for the first time,
in reality-by the conviction that Dora and I had indeed
to work out our future for ourselves, and that no one
could assist us, to take much notice of it. ,
Dora came stealing down in her little slippers, to meet
me, now that I was alone; and cried upon my shoulder,‘
and said I had been hard-hearted and she had been
naughty; and I said much the same thing iI1,‘efIect”I
-believe; and we made it up, and agreed that our first
little difference was to be our last, and -that we were
never to have another if we lived a hundred years. ' '
The next domestic trial we went through, was the Or.
deal of servants. ' Mary Anne’s cousinideserted into ‘our
coal-hole, and was brought out, to our great amazement,
by it piquet of his companions in arms, who took him
away handcuffed in a procession that‘ covered our front.
garden with ignoniiny. This nerved me to get‘rid of
Mary Anne, who went so mildly, on receipt of wages
that I was surprised, until I found out about the tea:
spoons, and also about the little sums she had borrowed
in my name of the trailespeople ' without authority
After an interval of Mrs. Kidgerbii -the oldest inhabi:
-taut of Kentish Town, I believe, iv 0 went out charing
but was too feeble to execute her conceptions of that art
-we found another treasure, who was one of .the most
amiable of women, but who generally made a point of
falling either up or down the kitchen stairs with the tray
and almost plunged into the parlour, as into a bath with
the tea-things. The ravages committed by this uniortu.
mite, rendering her dismissal necessary, she was suc-
ceeded (with intervals of Mrs.‘ Kidgerbury) by a 'lonrr
line of Incapables ; terminating in a young person of gen”.
tcel appearance, who wentto Greenwich Fair in'Dora’s
After whom-I remember. nothing but an aver.
age equality of failure. . .
Everybody we had anything to do with seemed to
, cheat us. Our appearance in a shop was a signal for the
damaged goods to be brought out immediately. .If we
bought a lobster, it was full of water. All our meat
turned out to be tough, and there was hardlv any crust
to our loaves. In search of the principle on which joints
ought to bc roasted,-to bc roasted enough, and nag too
much, I myself referred to the Cookery-Book, and found
Tit there established as the allowance of aquarter of an
Jioiir to every pound, andsay a quarter over. But the
principle always failed us bysome curious fatality, and
WOJIOVQY could hit any medium between redness and
cm ers.
-lhad reason to believe that in accomplishing these
failures we incurred a far greater expense than if we
had achieved a series of triumphs. It appeared to me,
on looking over the tradesinen’s books, as if we might
have: kept the basement story paved with butter, such
was the extensive scale of our consumption of that arti-
cle. -I don’t vknow whether the Excise returns of the
period may have exhibited any increase in the demand
for pepper; but if our performances did not affect the
market, I should say several families must have left off
using it. And the most wonderful fact of all was, that
we never had anything in the house..
‘ As to the washerwoman pawning the clothes, and com-
ing in a state of penitent intoxication to apologise, I sup-
pose that might have happened several times to anybody.
Also the chimney on fire, the parish engine, and perjury
on the part of the Beadle.’ But I apprehend that we
. were personally unfortunate in engaging a servant with
3 taste for cordials, who swelled our running account for
porter at the public-house by such inexplicable items as
“quartern rum shrub (Mrs. C.)”:, “Half-quartern gin
and. cloves (Mrs. C.)” “ Glass rum ;and peppermint
(Ml‘S- 0.)”-the parenthesis always referring to Dori‘,
who was supposed, it appeared on explanation, to have
imbibed the whole of these refreshments.
g One 9f our first feats in the housekeeping way was it
little dinner to Traddles. I met him in town, and asked
him to ‘walk out with me that afternoon. He readily
consenting, I wrote to Dora, saying I would bring him
home. ,It was pleasant weather, and on the road We
made my domestic happiness the theme of conversation-
Traddles was very full of it; and said, that, picturing
himself with such a home, and Sopliy waiting and pre-
paring for him, he could think of nothing wanting to
complete his bliss. , v p v i . ‘
I could not have wished for a prettier little wife at the .
0l2P0Slt8 End Of the table,! but I certainly could ha”
“flshed. when we sate down, for a little more room.
did not km" h0‘V-it W35. but though there were 011i)’
two of us, we were at once always cramped for room, Mid
Yet had fllways room enough to lose evervthing in-
,5“5P90t It may have been because nothing had a place of
“S 0“: “X961” Jip’s pagoda, which invariably blocked
up’ the main thorouglifare. On the present occasion,
Traddles was so hemmed in by the pagoda “ml the gui.
tar.case, and 'Dora’s flower-painting, and my writing-
lalgle, that Iliad-serious doubts of the possibility of his
gilolzlglhls kmfe "34 f01'k ; hilt he protested, with his OW“
iumour, “ 2 re
yo%i Oceans 1”’ ‘ ceans of room, Copperfield! I 8&0
iere was another thinrr I coum , .1], ‘namely,
that Jiphud Ileiver been gncollrageaarff ::.1,3ke‘,1,'b0ut the
mb1e'c1.”th d.“m‘g dinner. I began to think there W95
something disorderly in his being them at an even if he
had not been in the habit of putting his foot ’in the sol
01!‘. the melted-butter. On this occasion he scenic
t unmlewas mtmduced expressly tokeep Trxiddles at bill’?
ilnd hevbarkcd at my old friend, and made short runs 1”
ligsqplglf. Xltll such undaunted pcrtinacity, that be 1119-)’
Iiai 0 ate engrossed the conyersntion, ,
0WeV'9l'. 115 I knew how tender-hearted mV dear
Dora Was, and how sensitive she would be to any Slight
uponher favourite, I hinted no objection For similar
reasons I made no allusion to the skirinisliing plates
upon the 1190’? 01‘ l0 the disreputable appearance Of the
Eastors, which were all at sixes and sevens’ andglook
1'11.Dlx ;'0l‘ to the further blockade of Traddles by Wan’
daring ‘vegetable dishes and jugs 1 could not, help
wondering in my own mind, as '1 contemplated the
boiled leg of mutton before me previous to carving it.
how It mime 10 pass that our joihts of meat were of S110
lzxtraordlniwy Shapes-and ’ whether) our butcher 00”‘
f1<)3I'.0-Illktlle deformed sheep that came int0 l 8
u M‘; logic,” Sf;1i>(t1 Ipyorggigtignshto myself. t imhat
dish?” , V: W at have you go p
I Icould notima ine wh -' em t’
..,..%.., ...i’;%.“::.‘;:z‘.‘:r::i:.%‘::‘::%.‘ "
.: %l35‘“t‘,‘;‘- :19“?-" Said Dora, timidly
' as a your thou ht-2:: . ' . .
u 1 eyes’ Dewy," wig Domsaid I, delighted
x
" The” “CV” W35 =1 happier one I " 1 nncinimed. l5iiPf>'