CHAPTER XI.

Hark! where th’ inveytin’ drum o’ MarsAthwart the far land rattles,It minds me aye o’ wounds an’ scars,O’ bruolliments an’ battles.But Sargin’ Keyte wad fain persuadeIt’s but the call of honour,Where certain fortune shall be made,By those who wait upon her,Off han’ this day.* * * * * *I leyke the king, I leyke the state,The kurk and constitution,An’ on their foes buith soon and late,Wish downfa’ an’ confusion.But may nae frien’ o’ mine,By cheats turn out that maizlin ninny,To barter aw’ the Briton’s reeghts,For nonsense an’ a guinea.Wi’ Keyte this day.Rosley Fair.

Hark! where th’ inveytin’ drum o’ Mars

Athwart the far land rattles,

It minds me aye o’ wounds an’ scars,

O’ bruolliments an’ battles.

But Sargin’ Keyte wad fain persuade

It’s but the call of honour,

Where certain fortune shall be made,

By those who wait upon her,

Off han’ this day.

* * * * * *

I leyke the king, I leyke the state,

The kurk and constitution,

An’ on their foes buith soon and late,

Wish downfa’ an’ confusion.

But may nae frien’ o’ mine,

By cheats turn out that maizlin ninny,

To barter aw’ the Briton’s reeghts,

For nonsense an’ a guinea.

Wi’ Keyte this day.

Rosley Fair.

Onthe morrow the Sandboys received formal notice to quit the establishment of Mrs. Fokesell on that day week.

What was to be done?

Where were they to go?

London was filling rapidly. In the extensive lodging district on the southern side of the Strand, scarcely a bill was to be seen bearing the significant inscription of

APARTMENTSTO BE LET,ELEGANTLY FURNISHED.

APARTMENTS

TO BE LET,

ELEGANTLY FURNISHED.

and even where cards of vacant lodgings were to be seen, so enormous were the present demands, that the economical mind of Mrs. Sandboys stood aghast at the contemplation of the weekly outlay.

The Chelsea and Camden Town colonies of clerks she had explored; but there nothing was to be had but bed-rooms for single gentlemen who were expected to breakfast only on the premises.

The great commercial retreats of Stoke Newington, Haggerstone, Clapham, and Camberwell, were likewise scoured in their turn, but with no better success. Attics were quoted at ten shillings; second floors were at a high premium; and very little parlours and drawing-rooms were letting at very large prices.

The day of the opening of the Grand Exhibition was fast drawing near; and the rumour had already spread over the country that the Queen intended to open the “Great Glass Hive” in state. Already did the streets swarm with straw-colour-haired Germans, and chicory-complexioned Egyptians—already was Regent Street crammed with beards, full pantaloons, and felt hats—already was the terminus of the Dover line daily disgorging some hundreds of Parisians habited in quaint cut cloaks, with hoods like huge jelly-bags dangling at their backs—already were the thoroughfares at the West End crowded with holiday-looking folk, and streams of gaily-dressed idlers seemed to be pouring in the direction of some fair in the outskirts—hairs seemed to have sprung up on the lips and chin of every other passerby in a night, like mustard and cress—the huge waggons, piled high as the house-tops with large wooden cases, each indorsed in bold letters,

FOR THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF ALL NATIONS,

had ceased to appear in the streets, and all seemed to be preparing for the great fair—the world’s holiday.

The Sandboys held a family council, the result of which was, that it was unanimously agreed it would be advisable, under the circumstances, for them to retire some short distance from the metropolis; and accordingly expeditions were sent out provisioned for the day, in search of the suburban regions.

After considerable difficulty, a bill was discovered pasted in a cheesemonger’s window, announcing that

“ANY NUMBER OF LADIES OR GENTLEMEN MAY BE ACCOMMODATED WITH APARTMENTS FOR A LIMITED PERIOD, IN A HEALTHY SITUATION, WITHIN A SIXPENNY RIDE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.ENQUIRE WITHIN.”

“ANY NUMBER OF LADIES OR GENTLEMEN MAY BE ACCOMMODATED WITH APARTMENTS FOR A LIMITED PERIOD, IN A HEALTHY SITUATION, WITHIN A SIXPENNY RIDE OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

ENQUIRE WITHIN.”

This was too good news to let slip. Accordingly, Mrs. Sandboys no sooner received the information from her son Jobby, than she sallied forth, intent on ascertaining further particulars respecting the suburban domicile. On her return, she informed Mr. Sandboys that she thought it would be the “very thing” for them. The lodging was close to Wimbledon Common, at an establishment for young ladies, where the Easter vacation had been extended to a month, in honour of the opening of the Great Exhibition. Miss Wewitz herself was at present staying, on a visit, with one of her pupils in the metropolis; and Mrs. Wewitz had very properly thought it a pity to allow so large a house, making up, as it did, upwards of sixty beds, to remain unoccupied, just at a time when so many strangers were wanting a place to put their head in.

The next day, Mrs. Sandboys made an excursion to Wimbledon, and came back to Town delighted with the “ladies’ establishment.” Everything was so scrupulously clean,—the bed-furniture and the boards were as white as the Sour Milk Gill opposite their window at Buttermere; and the whole place was so airy and beautifully ventilated, that she believed Jobby might have flown his kite in the principal bed-room. Then the terms were so moderate, and the lady so obliging—she really thought she was one of the nicest old bodies she had seen for many a long day;—altogether, she was quite in love with the place, and everything and everybody about it.

She had arranged, she said, to go in the very next day; for, really, that spiteful old thing of a Mrs. Fokesell did make the house so uncomfortable, that the sooner they got out of her power the better.

The next morning a cab was hired, to carry the Sandboys and their luggage to the Waterloo terminus.

The parting with Mrs. Fokesell was by no means of a pathetic character, though, when the time came for saying good bye, the landlady, who had been considerably mollified by the payment of her bill, hoped as how that bygones would be bygones, and acknowledged that she might have behaved a little “hindiscreet” on the late occasion, but her blood was up, she said, and then she wasn’t her own missus.

In a few hours afterwards, the family of the Sandboys were safely landed at “Parthenon House,” Wimbledon Common.

Here nothing occurred to ruffle the serenity of their retirement for some few days.

On the fifth day, however, from their entering the establishment, the French master, who wasreallya “Natif de Paris,” and had published a sheet wherein the whole of the French genders were ingeniously reduced to two, called to request that a friend of his might be accommodated with a temporary apartment under that roof. His friend had come to England to be present at the opening of the Great Exhibition, and wished for a large airy room. The mother of the head of the establishment was delighted to have the opportunity of disposing of her left wing—if the gentleman would not object to the beds remaining in the apartment, for she had no other place wherein to stow them. The French master observed, that he was sure his friend and compatriot would be too happy to oblige so young and beautiful a lady (the mother had long ago taken to false fronts), and with this enchanting tara-diddle, he withdrew from the premises, leaving the old lady to declare that there was a something—she didn’t know what—about French manners, that to her mind far surpassed the English.

The day after this, the French master accompanied his friend M. le Comte de Sanschemise, who came in a large cloak, an immense Spanish hat, and a small reticule-like carpet bag, to take possession of his apartment and its extensive range of beds.

Now it so happened that the day after M. le Comte had entered the ladies’ establishment, three thousand of the French Gardes Nationales, who had come over to be present at the opening of the Crystal Palace on the 1st of May, were deposited in the very heart of the metropolis by a monster train from Dover.

To locate so large a colony in the foreign districts of London was impossible. The Frenchmen were already ten in a room in all the purlieus of Golden-square. Leicester, on the other hand, what with the world in the centre, and the denizens of all nations swarming on every side of it, was as full as it could well hold. The Quadrant had become as Frenchified as the Palais Royal, and the boxes of the several cheap Restaurants round about the Haymarket were swarming with parties of poor Parisians, who invariably demanded portions for one and plates for six.

It was in this emergency that the French master of Parthenon House, who was known to some of the troop, bethought him of the many spare beds in the apartment of his friend, M. le Comte de Sanschemise, and immediately proposed that as many of them should retire to that establishment as the room could hold. For the sake of appearances, however, it was arranged that they should proceed to the house in not more than two at one time, and accordingly every conveyance that left London deposited its couple of “citoyens” at the door of the Wimbledon Establishment for Young Ladies.

By the close of the evening the arrivals had already amounted to two-and-twenty, and during the next day nearly double that number were brought to the gate.

Mrs. Wewitz had already been given to understand that two-and-twenty Frenchmen had slept the night previous in the bed-room of the young ladies belonging to the upper school, and now, to her great horror, she saw the number of foreigners under her roof increased by couples almost every half-hour throughout the day.

At dusk she thought it high time to remonstrate with M. le Comte, and on requesting to be informed how many there were at present lodged in his room, she was horrified to hear that, including himself, there were no less than eight-and-forty occupants. She begged to remind the Comte that she had let the room to him alone. But the Comte, with the greatest politeness possible, assured her that he was at liberty to do with the apartment as he pleased so long as he paid the rent for it, and that she need not be under the least alarm, for that they were all perfect gentlemen, and that many of them, like himself, were persons of title.

Mrs. Wewitz knew not what to do under the circumstances. To endeavour to put eight-and-forty soldiers to the rout was more than she dare attempt—and to call in the aid of the police would be, perhaps, not only to cause bloodshed, but to get the whole affair published in the newspapers, and so ruin the school; for what parent, as she justly observed to herself, would dream of confiding an innocent daughter to the care of an establishment where as many as four dozen foreigners were in the habit of being located in one apartment alone. Then she was in a state of continual alarm lest the Sandboys should discover the colony of National Guards she had under her left wing; and how to keep their presence a secret from them was beyond her power to conceive. If she only dare venture to break the distressing intelligence to her daughter in town, she perhaps might be able to bring the business to a happy and speedy termination; but she knew that her dearest Cleopatra would never forgive her imprudence. Then, again, how was she to get rid of the fellows, even before the young ladies returned? for if they would not go now, how was it likely that they would stir at a time when London would have become more full, and there would then be the extra inducement of the impudent fellows remaining on the premises to make love to the young ladies? She would not have that Emily Bonpoint back while those wretches of Frenchmen were about for all she was worth. For if she and her daughter couldn’t be a match for her at other times, a pretty life she would lead them with the left wing packed full of foreigners. It would break her Cleopatra’s heart she knew when she came to hear of it, that the filthy, dirty fellows had been sleeping two together in those beautiful white beds of hers—though how they managed in the short, narrow slips of things, was impossible to say. Besides, if there was one thing that her daughter paid more attention to than another, it was the morals of the tender plants that were placed under her culture—and she would never forgive herself, she was sure, if with all those Frenchmen under the roof any elopement should take place—for not one of them, she was sure, had got a halfpenny to bless himself.

For a few days the Sandboys remained in a state of comparative ignorance as to the small army that was then barracked under the same roof with them. Jobby, to be sure, had noticed the number of men in red pantaloons that continually kept going in and out of the premises; but, beyond a passing remark, this had excited little or no astonishment.

Mrs. Sandboys moreover, had noticed, on the very first day of the foreigners entering the establishment, a strong smell of tobacco smoke, and a fogginess in every one of the rooms that she could in no way account for; but this had worn off, and she had since paid but little attention to the matter, for, whether from continual use her senses had become in a measure accustomed to the smell, or whether from the Sandboys being located at the other side of the house, it was difficult to say, but certain it was, that after the first evening she had not been heard to complain.

One night, however, the lady being rather nervous, after partaking heartily of a cold rice-pudding for supper, she felt satisfied that she heard some noise in the house. Sandboys had been fast asleep for some time, but she thumped him on the back and confided to him her suspicions that all was not right below stairs. But Cursty was too tired to trouble himself much about the matter, so he merely murmured that it was all owing to that cold rice-pudding shewouldeat, and immediately re-arranged himself for the continuation of his slumbers.

Mrs. Sandboys was too firmly convinced of the soundness of the conclusion at which she had arrived, to be able to rest quiet in her bed. She tried to close her eyes and shut out all thought of the unpleasant circumstance from her mind, but it was useless; the noise still forced itself upon her, and she could not help thinking of the lonely situation of the house, so near that wicked London as it was. They might all scream their very lives out before they could make any one hear. Nor did the stories told of the highwaymen that in the last century had infested the common, and the anecdotes she had heard of the parties who used to wait at the road-side inn, at the corner of it, till a sufficient number of travellers had arrived to allow them to cross the deserted place in a body formidable enough to prevent their being plundered.

Mrs. Sandboys, therefore, rose from her bed, determined to satisfy herself whence the noise proceeded. At times she would declare that she heard voices at the opposite side of the building. Accordingly, slipping on her flannel gown, she proceeded with the rushlight shade to inspect the premises.

She had not gone far in the direction of the other wing of the establishment, when the smoke grew so thick that it was almost impossible for her to see her hand before her, and it was of so pungent a nature, that it almost blinded as well as stifled her. At first it smelt to her very like the fumes of tobacco, but as she was not aware of there being any one addicted to “the weed” in the “Establishment for Young Ladies”—a taste, indeed, that seemed utterly at variance with the feminine character of the institution—she got to be convinced that there was some tarry substance smouldering away in one of the rooms, and that it only required a breath of air to cause it to burst into a sheet of flame, when they would be all burnt alive in their beds.

Perhaps, thought Mrs. Sandboys, there might yet be time to extinguish the smouldering mass. Accordingly, she hurried back to her bed-room for the jug of cold water, so that she might empty its contents upon the burning body immediately she discovered whereabouts it lay.

The lady’s steps grew quicker and quicker, as, led by her nose, she followed the smoke, sniffing away like a terrier at a rat-hole—while the further she advanced the thicker the cloud became, until it was as much as she could do to fetch her breath in it.

Nothing daunted, however, she proceeded with the cape of her flannel-gown to her nose, and at length reached the doorway of the apartment of the United Frenchmen, whence she perceived the fumes were issuing. She opened the door cautiously, lest the flames, that she now felt convinced were raging within, should burst out upon her—indeed, at one time, as she stood outside shivering with fright, she was confident that she could hear the “devouring element” roaring within; though, truth to say, it was nothing more horrible than the snoring of the drowsiest of the eight-and-forty foreigners.

As she entered the apartment, all was in such a fog of fume, that it was impossible to distinguish a single object. Presently, however, she caught sight of a burning mass—she knew not where or what it was—but there she could see it, growing brighter and brighter at intervals, as if the breeze were fanning it, and it wanted but a few minutes longer to burst into flame.

Without hesitating for one moment, she dropped the rushlight shade on the ground, and dashed the contents of the water-jug full in the direction of the ignited body.

Immediately after the first splash, there was heard the panting of some one gasping for breath, and then a hoarse cry of—“Sacr-r-re mille nommes de tonnerre!”

Mrs. Sandboys no sooner heard the sound of a man’s voice—and that man a Frenchman—than, letting the empty water-jug fall with a loud crash, she uttered a shrill scream, and flew from the man’s apartment in the direction of her own.

The astonished and drenched Frenchman, who, like the rest of his comrades, had been indulging in the Parisian luxury of a pipe in bed, and who had fallen asleep with his large “meerschaum” still alight in his mouth, hearing the shriek of a female, immediately sprang from his bed, and darted off after the lady, in the hope of making her explain and apologize for the unceremonious manner in which she had roused him from his slumbers.

Mrs. Sandboys, however, had so good a start of the foreigner, that she was able to reach her apartment before he could lay hold of her; and then rushing into it, she slammed to the door, and throwing herself upon her beloved Cursty, fell shrieking and kicking and crying, “There’s a man, Cursty—there’s a man!”

Mr. Sandboys, on being roused so suddenly, required to shake himself two or three times before he could collect himself sufficiently to comprehend whether or not he was finishing the nightmare that the cold rice-pudding had produced. At length, however, he had a vague, indistinct recollection of his wife having previously roused him with an alarm of thieves; so, making up his mind that this was the cause of his Aggy’s fright, and that she had been actually pursued by some daring burglar, he dashed from his bed-room armed with a good stout stick.

Immediately outside the door he encountered the Frenchman, who was busy in the dark, feeling for some mark by which he could recognise the apartment in the morning. Cursty no sooner laid hands upon the strange man, than he prepared to seize him by the throat. On attempting to do this, he discovered, to his great surprise, that the supposed housebreaker was “bearded like the pard;” accordingly, he grasped, with a tight hold, the hairy appendage to the foreigner’s chin with one hand, while with the other he proceeded, with his ash stick, to belabour him, in his shirt as he was, till his cries raised the whole house.

Then the ladies, maids and all, threw up the windows of their bed-rooms, and proceeded, some to shriek “Police!” others to scream “Murder!” and “Thieves!” while the rest busied themselves with springing the entire battery of watchmen’s rattles that were kept, for the safety of the young ladies, always at hand on the premises.

Mrs. Wewitz, when she discovered the cause of the disturbance, was more alarmed than ever; for she plainly began to perceive that the eight-and-forty Frenchmen, whom in a moment of weakness she had admitted within the sacred precincts of “Parthenon House,” would ultimately bring ruin upon the hitherto unsullied reputation of her daughter’s “Establishment for Young Ladies.”

Mrs. Sandboys, on becoming acquainted with the fact that she and her daughter were living beneath the same roof with nearly half a hundred Frenchmen, grew extremely uneasy at not only the proverbial amatory tendency of the dispositions ofjeune France, but the equally notorious want of cleanliness in the natives of the same enlightened country.

Not a moment would she allow Elcy to be out of her sight, for she knew that even when she herself accompanied her for a walk round the playground, the nasty impudent fellows were all up at their windows in a moment, and kept continually dropping notes of assignation done up as “cornichons” of sweetmeats on to her parasol as they passed.

But what troubled her perhaps quite as much was, the utter absence of all weekly contributions of linen for the wash on the part of the united eight-and-forty Parisians. She had made particular inquiries on this subject of Mrs. Wewitz, just to satisfy herself whether the rumoured indifference ofla belle Francefor a change of linen was in any way founded upon truth, and when that lady assured her that though the four dozen had been in her house upwards of a fortnight not so much as a shirt front even, or a pair of socks, had they forwarded to the laundress.

The cleanly Mrs. Sandboys became so horrified at the idea of a small battalion being shut up in the same house as herself, without having so much as a change of linen for two entire weeks, that she did not hesitate to tell the alarmed Mrs. Wewitz that now the warm weather was coming on, they would be sure to be having a malignant fever break out on the premises; for it was the universal opinion of the best medical authorities, that all of the most dangerous diseases arose merely from dirt—and serve the people quite right too, she said; she didn’t pity one of the nasty filthy things. But it was only for the poor young ladies’ sakes that she spoke, for most likely they’d be coming back just in the thick of it. She would only ask Mrs. Wewitz to picture to herself what the small-pox would be among sixty young ladies, the majority of whom perhaps had nothing but their good looks to depend upon for their advancement in life; besides vaccination, she must well know, was held to be of no good after seven years, and as Miss Wewitz, her daughter, didn’t receive any young ladies under that age, she might readily imagine the ravages that such a pestilence would be likely to make in such a place, and the number of poor miserable old maids that they’d have to answer for.

The urgent appeals of Mrs. Sandboys took so firm a hold on the mind of Mrs. Wewitz, that she said she would do anything that Mrs. Sandboys might think best. Whereupon, that lady suggested that, as it was Monday, she should be allowed to send Ann Lightfoot up to the Frenchmen, and desire to know whether they had any “things” for the wash—at least, Mrs. Sandboys said, it would shame them into making up some bundle, however small it might be.

Accordingly, Ann Lightfoot was dispatched on the errand, with strict orders to bring back the answer as quickly as possible.

Some considerable time elapsed, however, before the maid returned with the reply, what washing the gentlemen needed, they said they themselves did; and in proof of the truth of the statement, the maid told her mistress that on entering the room, she found the Count and some of the Officers around the wash-hand basin busily engaged in soaping and rubbing away at their dirty collars.

The message once delivered, Mrs. Sandboys began to question the girl as to the cause of her delay. The maid, in a confused manner, endeavoured to stammer out that she couldn’t make the gentlemen understand her.

Mrs. Sandboys, however, observing, on a close scrutiny of the girl’s appearance, that her cap was awry, desired her to come closer to her, and then taking hold of her, she turned the maid round, and to her horror discovered imprinted on her cheek a series of exact copies in “cire de moustache” of every shape and variety of mustachio. Then seizing the girl by the arm, she dragged her round to the looking-glass, and begged to be informed whether it was necessary for the Frenchmen’s lips to be placed so near to her before they could make her understand what they meant.

Ann Lightfoot coloured crimson as she perceived that the black wax with which the Parisians were in the habit of darkening their beards, had left its mark upon her skin, and bursting into tears, she said it was impossible for her to get away from them; for first it was one, and then the other, till at last she really thought that they would have torn her to pieces among them, and if there was one, added the girl, that was wuss than another, it was the one as said he only wished he could have caught hold of you, mum, if you please, the other night.

Mrs. Sandboys gave a faint scream at the bare idea of such an accident having occurred to her; and feeling in no way inclined to continue the conversation, after the unpleasant turn it had taken, she desired the girl to go below, and take good care how she trusted herself again within a mile of those impudent foreigners.

Some two or three days after the above occurrence, Mrs. Wewitz, who now began to keep a strict eye upon all the movements of the detachment of theGarde Nationalequartered within her domicile, hastened up to the sitting-room of Mrs. Sandboys to inform her that she verily believed every one of the fellows had left the house for a stroll. She had counted forty-seven of them go out of the gate, and she was convinced she must have made a mistake of one somewhere, for though she had been up to their room, and listened at the door for nearly half-an-hour, she could not hear a soul stirring—and now she added, “My dear, it will be a good opportunity for us to see the state in which the room really is, for, with the exception of Ann Lightfoot, not a creature has ever been in it—no, not even to make their beds, since the first day they took possession of the place.”

Mrs. Sandboys was as eager for the survey as Mrs. Wewitz herself, and accordingly they started off together, intent upon having what the ladies called a “good rout out” of all the things during the absence of the Frenchmen.

On reaching the bed-room, they stood for some few minutes outside, listening, but hearing no sound within, they ventured to push the door open, so that they might be able to have a full view of the apartment, and satisfy themselves of there being no one in it before they ventured upon entering.

Not a creature was to be seen, so the two ladies crept cautiously in; and no sooner did Mrs. Wewitz set eyes on the coffee colour of the once white dimity bed-curtains, than she threw up her hands, as if in despair of ever seeing them a “good colour” again. Then placing the corner of the counterpane to her nose, the smell of stale tobacco was almost overpowering. How she should ever sweeten them for the young ladies, was more than she could tell.

Mrs. Sandboys next drew her attention to the state of the boards—the very boards which it was her pride to hear all who saw them say they could eat their dinner off them—and now, owing to the four dozen foreigners not possessing so much as one spittoon among them, they were stained over with the juice and ashes of tobacco. The bright bars and sides of the stove, too, were all spotted red with rust.

On a chair in the middle of the room stood the blacking bottle and brushes, and beside them, on one of the white toilet-covered tables, was a basin half full of inky water, in which the gallant sons of “la belle France” had recently rinsed their hands and faces—near this was a bottle of bandoline for gumming down the hair, and an old tooth-brush standing up in it—the only tooth-brush to be seen in the place. Lying next to these was a dirty, mangy-looking hair-brush, with several sticks of different colouredcires de moustache—looking like the ends of candles—and a bottle of lavender water. On the mantelpiece stood a pair of curling-tongs, a leaden whisker-comb, and a pot of patent polish for the boots, while above were ranged the entire pipes of the fraternity. Pinned to a string that stretched across the room from bed to bed, hung a couple of shirt fronts, left to dry, together with several dozen pairs of fresh-cleaned, lemon-coloured kid gloves, that emitted a strong smell of turpentine.

As the two ladies “poked about” the apartment, each seemed to find especial delight in dragging the other to witness some fresh evidence of filth or foppery that she had just discovered; and while they were thus agreeably engaged, speaking in whispers to one another, Mrs. Sandboys, who had ventured to stray further into the depths of the apartment than the more cautious Mrs. Wewitz, had almost reached the end of the chamber, when, to her horror, she discovered some one fast asleep in one of the beds. All that was visible above the clothes was the upper part of a head, profusely done up in curl papers.

Mrs. Sandboys no sooner caught sight of the “crackers,” than, breathless with indignation, she hurried back, on tiptoe, to her companion, and whispered in her ear, “My dear, there’s a woman in one of the beds!”

“A wo——!” Mrs. Wewitz was about to scream, when Aggy placed her hand on the lady’s mouth.

“Yes, a woman, my love! I tell tha I saw her curl-papers,” ejaculated Mrs. Sandboys, in a subdued tone of the deepest horror.

“The wretches!” cried Mrs. Wewitz, “they’ll be the ruin of us all—they will; but I’ll soon have the hussy out!” and so saying she hurried towards the bed which Mrs. Sandboys had indicated; and seizing the sleeper by the shoulders, began shaking the individual violently.

The suddenness and severity of the agitation roused the slumberer, when lifting his head up from under the clothes, he displayed to the terrified ladies a huge beard and pair of mustachios.

“Its a brute of a man, after all!” screamed Mrs. Wewitz, as she let go the shoulders of the hirsute Parisian.

“Goodness, gracious!” shrieked Mrs. Sandboys, and away they both scampered out of the apartment.

As they hastened back to their sitting-room, they met Ann Lightfoot on one of the landings, and communicating to her what had happened, the girl begged to know whether the man’s beard was red?

On being answered in the affirmative, she told the horror-stricken Mrs. Sandboys that it was the same man as had run after her the other night, and who assured her yesterday that he only wished he could have caught her; he’d have served her out finely.

“He was the wust of the whole bunch,” Ann Lightfoot said.

Mrs. Sandboys gave a faint scream, for, as she observed to Mrs. Wewitz, she shouldn’t wonder but what the nasty hairy brute of a fellow would be imagining that she was in love with him, and then what on earth would become of her!

Back to Index Next