SOME GENTLEMAN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 163 



give him the box, if the passenger who's in possession of it happens 

 to be accommodating." Of course I acquiesced, and on the steps of a 

 large old-fashioned house in the next town, I perceived, by the moon- 

 light, as we approached, a highly respectable looking middle-aged 

 gentleman : this was Ralph's particular friend, the country banker. 

 As Ralph drew up, he took the place which I had contrived to evacu- 

 ate a few moments before, with an alacrity that shewed he knew time 

 was, or ought to be, very precious indeed to a mail coach. His de- 

 meanour was grave his aspect stern and somewhat repulsive I tried 

 to enter into conversation with him, but he met my advances with cold 

 civility. " I think, sir, we've met before," said I. " I think so too," 

 said he, in a certain sort of marked unpleasant tone, that induced me 

 indignantly to draw in my horns, and plunge my chin sulkily behind 

 the deep collar of the coat which Ralph had lent me. Indeed I went 

 so far as to resolve that I would not open my lips to him again, good, 

 bad, or indifferent, during the remainder of the journey. 



At a little low, thatched, roadside, public house, where Ralph 

 changed horses, we had to wait for a cross country mail which had 

 not yet come up. It was now about an hour before dawn, and the 

 morning air being raw and chilly, we went into the kitchen of the inn, 

 which, although the fire had nearly expired, afforded an acceptable 

 shelter, notwithstanding the atmosphere was filthily impregnated 

 with the fumes of rusty bacon, sour Wiltshire swipes, onions, and 

 tobacco. There was a woman inside the coach, with a little child ; 

 but she declined alighting : the only other passenger besides myself 

 was Ralph's " particular friend." Black Harry, after protesting that 

 Ralph had tooled the tits so as to be before his time, and that the 

 cross mail would not be up for half an hour at least, threw the slender 

 candle, which twinkled on the table, beneath the grate, and brought 

 in one of the coach-lamps. The glare of this was insufferable : for 

 my own part, I should have infinitely preferred the softer beam of 

 the candle, especially as the banker, to whom I had taken a rooted 

 dislike, appeared to be intent on reading in such of my lineaments as 

 I condescended to reveal, the circumstances under which we had for- 

 merly met. I saw that through the medium of a savage, unsocial, 

 and unnatural glare, fit only for the turnpike road, I was in danger 

 of being recognized, perhaps, as somebody else. I therefore moved to 

 the back of the lamp, and thus threw myself into deep shadow. 

 Ralph begged the country banker's pardon for taking such a liberty, 

 but hoped and trusted, that with such a famous light, his " particular 

 friend" (Ralph did not call him so to his face,) would not object to 

 reading a few pages aloud till the cross mail came up. " There's 

 nothing in life so pleasant, sir," said Ralph, " as being read to." 



" I've said the same vords scores and hundreds of times," quoth 

 Harry, " 'specially if them as reads is a born gemman, mind me, and 

 the thing as is read happens to be werse." 



Ralph now took a tattered fragment of a book from one of his 

 inner coat pockets, and placing it before his " particular friend," the 

 latter began to read, with an audible voice, but half unconsciously, 

 his mind being evidently abstracted, and his eye turning frequently 

 to the spot where he supposed I sat I say supposed, for I had 



