124 PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF M&. WATKINS TOTTLE 



genteel-looking young man was talking earnestly and in a low tone to 

 a young female, whose face was concealed by a thick veil, but whom 

 Mr. Gabriel Parsons immediately set down in his own mind as the 

 debtor's wife. A young fellow of vulgar manners, dressed in the 

 very extremity of the prevailing fashion, was pacing up and down the 

 room, with a lighted cigar in his mouth, and his hands in his pockets, 

 ever and anon puffing forth volumes of smoke, and occasionally ap- 

 plying with much apparent relish to a pint pot, the contents of which 

 were " chilling" on the hob. 



" Fourpence more, by G d !" exclaimed one of the cribbage- 

 players, lighting a pipe, and addressing his adversary at the close of 

 the game; " one 'ud think you'd got luck in a pepper-cruet, and 

 shook it out when you wanted it." 



" Well, that a'n't a bad 'un," replied the other, who was a horse- 

 dealer from Islington. 



" No; I'm blessed if it is," interposed the jolly-looking fellow, 

 who, having finished his dinner, was drinking out of the same glass 

 as his wife, in truly conjugal harmony, some hot gin-and-water. 

 The faithful partner of his cares had brought a plentiful supply of 

 the anti-temperance fluid in a large flat stone bottle, which looked 

 like a half-gallon jar that had been successfully tapped for the 

 dropsy. " You're a rum chap you are, Mr. Walker will you dip 

 your beak into this, Sir ?" 



" Thank'ee, Sir," replied Mr. Walker, leaving his box, and ad- 

 vancing to the other to accept the proffered glass. " Here's your 

 health, Sir, and your good 'ooman's here. Gentlemen all your's, 

 and better luck still. Well, Mr. Willis," continued the facetious 

 prisoner, addressing the young man with the cigar, " you seem rather 

 down to-day floored, as one may say. What's the matter, Sir? 

 Never say die, you know." 



" Oh ! I'm all right," replied the smoker. " I shall be bailed out 

 to-morrow." 



" Shall you though?" enquired the other. "Damme, I wish I 

 could say the same. I am as regularly over head and ears as the 

 Royal George ; and stand about as much chance of being bailed out. 

 Ha! ha! ha!" 



" Why," said the young man, stopping short, and speaking in a 

 very loud key, " Look at me. What d'ye ye think I've stopped here 

 two days for?" 



" 'Cause you couldn't get out, I suppose," interrupted Mr. Walker, 

 winking to the company. " Not that you're exactly obliged to stop 

 here, only you can't help it. No compulsion, you know, only you 

 must eh ?" 



" A'n't he a rum'un ?" inquired the delighted individual, who had 

 offered the gin-and-water, of his wife. 



"Oh, he just is !" replied the lady, who was quite overcome by 

 these flashes of imagination. 



' Why, my case," frowned the victim, throwing the end of his ci- 

 gar into the fire, and illustrating his argument by knocking the bot- 

 tom of the pot on the table, at intervals "my case is a very sin- 

 gular one : my father's a man of large property, and I am his son." 



