292 SWAMP HALL. 



each other, and his eyes averted from Mr. Penny Scat in the easy chair, 

 the picture of ghastly imbecility ; whilst the father of the drowned 

 child (he was in the act of cutting a corner crust, as Becky rushed in) 

 with a case-knife griped in his hand, sprang to his feet, and, ap- 

 proaching Mr. Solon the paternal feeling overbearing all recollections 

 of Swamp Hall, all "trivial fond records" of the friendship of its 

 owner exclaimed, in a voice rendered painfully piercing by emotion, 

 at the same time unconsciously shaking the glittering steel within a 

 hand's breadth of Mr. Solon's neckcloth " Wretch ! monster ! busy- 

 body ! a curse to my house ! Begone, murderer ! fly my roof! My 

 my poor boy!" and here the tears rolled down the father's cheeks 

 his voice was stifled in his throat the knife fell from his hand and, 

 powerless, he sank sobbing into a chair, when his grief was diverted by 

 a sudden rush into the room, and he felt a wet mass literally heaved into 

 his lap. The load was Master Nicodemus not, as the newspapers say, 

 with " the vital spark totally extinct," old father Thames having con- 

 tented himself with sousing a beautiful suit of sky-blue, leaving un- 

 dimmed the Promethean principle of the embryo Archimedes. 



The story was soon told. Master Nicodemus, whilst in the wherry, 

 making for the steamer, had amused himself by trailing in the water the 

 thong of his toy whip, which, somehow or other escaping from his hand, 

 he made a lounge after it the nursery-maid made a grasp at his frock 

 the boat gave a lurch and Master Nicodemus, rolling over the gun- 

 wale, was kicking in an element foreign to his youthful habits. He 

 was, after due shrieking on the part of Sally, recovered by the water- 

 man hurried on shore carried, all dripping as lie was, to his home 

 Sally uttered the word " drowned" Becky saw the water streaming 

 from the child, and, without a thought, rushed to the parlour with her 

 version of the tragedy. Master Nicodemus was despatched to hot blan- 

 kets " the natural ruby" returned to Mrs. Penny's cheek Mr. Penny 

 gulped down two or three glasses of wine, after having, with a some- 

 what embarrassed air, picked up the case-knife, so lately held at the 

 throat of the friend of the family. Great had been the outrage com- 

 mitted on Mr. Solon : however, on the present occasion, he displayed 

 unusual magnanimity. Simply glancing at the case-knife, he let fall 

 the undeniable truth, that " murder was a serious matter passion was 

 a bad thing!" Mr. Penny was less assiduous than usual, in his apolo- 

 gies, and even Mrs. Penny, with feminine penetration, remarked, " If 

 Nicodemus had gone by the coach, he would not have run the risk of 

 being drowned." The accident was, however, to Mr. Solon, productive 

 of a new illustration of the nascent will and energy of his god-child ; for 

 he subsequently obtained, from Sally and the waterman, the most con- 

 current testimony, that, when in the Thames, Nicodemus suddenly dis- 

 played an evident endeavour to swim : had he been left alone, there 

 was no knowing what might have happened. 



Mr. Penny (for we must give a few more illustrations of the active 

 zeal of the friend of the family) was the enlightened member of a lite- 

 rary club in Richmond. Now Mrs. Penny hated clubs, and cared but 

 little for letters. This indifference was scarcely weakened by the fre- 

 quent visits of Mr. Penny to Mrs. Bluesoul, wife of a respectable neigh- 

 bour, and who was, moreover, one of the few lady members of the illu- 

 minated coterie. Mrs. Penny complained of these visits, to the friend 



