PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF MR. WATKINS TOTTLE. 127 



might remain in the room under the pretext of having something to 

 do. " He's game enough ven there's any thing to be fierce about ; 

 but who could be game as you call it, Mr. Walker, \vith a pale 

 young creetur like that, hanging about him ? It's enough to drive 

 any man's heart into his boots, to see 'em together and no mistake 

 at all about it. I never shall forget her first comin' here ; he wrote 

 to her on the Thursday to come I know he did 'cos I took the 

 letter. Uncommon fidgetty he was all day to be sure, and in the 

 evening he goes down into the office, and he says to Jacobs, says he 

 ' Sir, can I have the loan of a private room for a few minutes this 

 evening, without incurring any additional expence just to see my 

 wife in ?' says he. Jacobs looked as much to say ' Strike me boun- 

 tiful if you an't one of the modest sort / but as the gen'lm'n who had 

 been in the back parlour, had just gone out, and had paid for it for that 

 day, he says werry grave e Sir/ says he, ' it's agin our rules to let 

 private rooms to our lodgers on gratis terms, but,' says he, f for a gen- 

 tleman, I don't mind breaking through them, for once/ So then he 

 turns round to me and says, ' Ikey, put two mould candles in the 

 back parlour, and charge 'em to this gen'lm'n's account/ which I 

 did. Veil, by-and-by a hackney-coach comes up to the door, and 

 there, sure enough, was the young lady wrapped up in a hopera- 

 cloak, as it might be, and all alone. I opened the gate that night, so 

 I went up when the coach came, and he vos a watin' at the parlour- 

 door wasn't he a trembling neither? The poor creetur see him, 

 and could hardly walk to meet him. ' Oh, Harry !' she says, 'that 

 it should have come to this ! and all for my sake/ says she, putting 

 her hand upon his shoulder. So he puts his arm round her pretty 

 little waist, and leading her gently a little way into the room, so that 

 he might be able to shut the door, he says, so kind and soft like 

 ' Why, Kate/ says he " 



" Here's the gentleman you want, Sir," said Ikey abruptly break- 

 ing off in his story, and introducing Mr. Gabriel Parsons to the 

 crest-fallen Watkins Tottle, who at that moment entered the room. 

 Watkins advanced with a wooden expression of passive endurance, 

 and accepted the hand which Mr. Gabriel Parsons held out. 



" I want to speak to you/' said Gabriel, with a look strongly ex- 

 pressive of his dislike of the company. 



" This way," replied the imprisoned one, leading the way to the 

 front drawing-room, where rich debtors did the luxurious at the rate 

 of a couple of guineas a day. 



" Well, here I am," said Watkins, as he sat down on the sofa ; and 

 placing the palms of his hands on his knees, anxiously glanced at his 

 friend's countenance. 



" Yes ; and here you're likely to be," said Gabriel coolly, as he 

 rattled the money in his unmentionable-pockets, and looked out of 

 the window. 



" What's the amount with the costs ?" inquired Parsons after an 

 awkward pause. 



37/. 3s. lOd." 



" Have you got any money?" 



" Nine and sixpence," 



