A STRAY LEAF IN THE LIFE OF A GREAT NOVELlSTi 133 



room sauce. Cape and brandy, doing duty for sherry, and a genuine 

 bottle of Southampton port, so well known by the seducing appellation 

 of " Black-strap/ 7 All these luxuries were brought him by a lout of a 

 boy, who looked more like a helper than a waiter. 



" Well/' thought Walton, " the sooner I complete my mission the 

 better. I could not bear this sort of thing long. How far is it to the 

 Dock-yard, waiter ?" 



" I don't know ; master can tell'e ; its no use your going there now, 

 the gates be shut." 



" But I wish to see Sir Henry Grayhurst, the commissioner." 

 " He be gone to the Isle of Wight with his family, so I heerd Master 

 say." 



" Is he expected back soon?" 



" Lord, Sir, how can I tell ? if you ask master, he do know." 

 " Pleasant and intelligent youth !" sighed Walton, " 111 put him 

 into my next sketch. Well, I've had the bore of this day's journey for 

 nothing, since the man I came to see is absent, as if on purpose to 

 oblige me. How extremely agreeable ! I must ' ask master' then. 

 Tell the landlord I want him." 



" Master and missus be gone to the play ; it's old Kelly's benefit, and 

 they do go every year." 



" The play ! there's comfort in the name ; any thing is preferable to 

 this lonely, gloomy coffee-room. Send the chambermaid to me." 



An old woman, with a flat tin-candlestick, led the way to a small in- 

 convenient room up numerous flights of stairs, not evincing the slightest 

 sympathy with the limp of our traveller, who, by the way, had nearly 

 forgotten his gout in his annoyances. She assured him that all the best 

 rooms were engaged. 



What soothers of irritated feelings are soap and water ! Walton 

 washed his handsome face, and aristocratic hands, (novelist-ink had not 

 spoiled them,) got rid of his dusty travelling suit, put on a capacious 

 king's-stock with flowing black drapery, and a well-regulated and well- 

 braided Stultz. His ready-made Hoby's he consigned to tf boots," 

 having assumed the has de sole and easy pumps. Leaving word that he 

 should require something for supper, he bent his steps to the theatre. 



The acting was sufficiently bad to amuse him, and at a moment when 

 the attention of the audience was directed to the closing scene of the 

 tragedy, and the ladies of the Point were weeping at the distress of the 

 lady in point, the door of an opposite box was opened by the identical 

 lout who had waited on him at dinner. The lad, making his way 

 through a box-full of over-dressed and vulgar-looking people, whis- 

 pered to a man in a blue coat and powdered head, singling out Walton 

 as though he was the subject of this unexpected communication. The 

 landlord of the " George," for it was no less a personage, started up, 

 and instantly left the house, accompanied by the females of his party. 



When the curtain fell, a whisper spread from box to box, and during 

 the farce Walton could not help perceiving that he had become a greater 

 attraction in the eyes of the audience than the performers were. 



" What the devil does all this mean ?" thought he ; " have they found 

 out what I am ?" Perhaps they never saw a live author before. Let 

 them stare. If they like to make a lion of me, I'll humour the joke." 

 On rising to leave the house, Walton found that the door was 



