382 THE BLOOMSBURY CHRISTENING. 



<c No, sweet," returned the charming mother, accepting Dumps' 

 proffered arm ; and the little party entered the hackney-coach that 

 was to take them to the church. Dumps amusing Mrs. Kitterbell 

 by expatiating largely on the danger of measles, thrush, teeth- cutting, 

 and other interesting diseases to which children are subject. 



The ceremony (which occupied about five minutes) passed off 

 without anything particular occurring. The clergyman had to 

 dine some distance from town, and had got two churchings, three 

 christenings, and a funeral to perform in something less than a hour. 

 The godfathers and godmother, therefore, promised to renounce the 

 devil and all his works " and all that sort of thing," as little 

 Kitterbell said " in less than no time ;" and, with the exception of 

 Dumps nearly letting the child fall into the font when he handed it 

 to the clergyman, the whole affair went off in the usual business-like 

 and matter-of-course manner, and Dumps re-entered the Bank-gates 

 at two o'clock with heavy heart, and the painful conviction that he 

 was regularly booked for an evening party. 



Evening came and so did Dumps' pumps, black silk stockings, 

 and white cravat which he had ordered to be forwarded, per boy, 

 from Pentonville. The depressed godfather dressed himself at a 

 friend's counting-house, from whence, with his spirits fifty degrees 

 below proof, he sallied forth as the weather had cleared up, and the 

 evening was tolerably fine to walk to Great Russell-street. Slowly 

 he paced up Cheapside, Newgate-street, down Snow Hill, and up 

 Holborn ditto, looking as grim as the figure-head of a man-of-war, 

 and finding out fresh causes of misery at every step. As he was 

 crossing the corner of Hatton Garden, a man, apparently intoxicated, 

 rushed against him, and would have knocked him down had he not 

 been providentially caught by a very genteel young man who hap- 

 pened to be close to him at the time. The shock so disarranged 

 Dumps' nerves, as well as his dress, that he could hardly stand. 

 The gentleman took his arm, and in the kindest manner walked with 

 him as far as Furnival's Inn. Dumps, for about the first time in his 

 life, felt grateful and polite ; and he and the gentlemanly-looking 

 young man parted with mutual expressions of good will. 



" There are at least some well disposed men in the world," rumi- 

 nated the misanthropical Dumps, as he proceeded towards his desti- 

 nation. 



Rat tat ta-ra-ra-ra-ra-rat knocked a hackney-coachman at 

 Kitterbell's door, in imitation of a gentleman's servant, just as 

 Dumps reached it, and out came an old lady in a large toque, and an 

 old gentleman in a blue coat, and three female copies of the old lady 

 in pink dresses, and shoes to match. 



te It's a large party," sighed the unhappy godfather, wiping the 

 perspiration from his forehead, and leaning against the area-railings. 

 It was some time before the miserable man could muster up courage 

 to knock at the door, and when he did, the smart appearance of a 

 neighbouring green-grocer (who had been hired to wait for seven 

 and sixpence, and whose calves alone were worth double the money), 

 the lamp in the passage, and the Venus on the landing, added 

 to the hum of many voices, and the sound of a harp and two 



