22 PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF MR. WATKINS TOTTLE. 



see I hadn't got any money in those days, and they had ; and so they 

 wanted Fanny to pick up somebody else. However, we managed to 

 discover the state of each other's affections somehow. I used to meet 

 her at some mutual friends' parties ; at first we danced together, and 

 talked, and flirted, and all that sort of thing ; then I used to like no- 

 thing so well as sitting by her side we didn't talk so much then, but 

 I remember I used to have a great notion of looking at her out of the 

 extreme corner of my left eye, and then I got very miserable and 

 sentimental, and began to write verses, and use macassar. At last I 

 couldn't bear it any longer, and after I had walked up and down the 

 sunny side of Oxford-street, in tight boots for a week and a de- 

 vilish hot summer it was too in the hope of meeting her, I sat down 

 and wrote a letter, and begged her to manage to see me clandestinely, 

 for I wanted to hear her decision from her own mouth. I said I had 

 discovered, to my perfect satisfaction, that I couldn't live without 

 her, and that if she didn't have me, I had made up my mind to take 

 prussic acid, or take to drinking, or emigrate so as to take myself off 

 in some way or other. Well, I borrowed a pound, and bribed the 

 housemaid to give her the note which she did." 



"And what was the reply ?" enquired Timson, who had found 

 before, that encouraging the repetition of old stories, is sure to end 

 in a general invitation. 



" Oh, the usual way you know Fanny expressed herself very mi- 

 serable j hinted at the possibility of an early grave j said that no- 

 thing should induce her to swerve from the duty she owed her 

 parents ; and implored me to forget her, and find out somebody more 

 deserving ; and all that sort of thing. She said, she could on no ac- 

 count think of meeting me unknown to her pa and ma ; and entreated 

 me, as she should be in a particular part of Kensington Gardens at 

 eleven o'clock next morning, not to attempt to meet her there." 

 " You didn't go, of course ?" said Watkins Tottle. 

 " Didn't I ? Of course I did. There she was, with the identical 

 housemaid in perspective, in order that there might be no interruption. 

 We walked about for a couple of hours ; made ourselves delightfully 

 miserable ; and were regularly engaged. Then we began to ' cor- 

 respond' that is to say, we used to exchange about four letters a 

 day : what we used to say in 'em, I can't imagine. And I used to 

 have an interview in the kitchen, or in the cellar, or some such place, 

 every evening. Well, things went on in this way for some time ; 

 and we got fonder of each other every day. At last, as our love was 

 raised to such a pitch, and as my salary had been raised too shortly 

 before, we determined on a secret marriage. Fanny arranged to 

 sleep at a friend's the night before ; we were to be married early in 

 the morning, and then we were to return to her home and be pa- 

 thetic. She was to fall at the old gentleman's feet, and bathe his 

 boots with her tears ; and I was to hug the old lady, and call her 

 'mother,' and use my pocket-handkerchief as much as possible. 

 Married we were the next morning ; two girls friends of Fanny's 

 acting as bride's-maids ; and a man, who was hired for five shillings 

 and a pint of porter, officiating as father. Now, the old lady un- 

 fortunately put off her return from Ramsgate, where she had been 

 paying a visit, until the next morning ; and as we placed great reli- 



