481 

 THE BOARDING-HOUSE. 



MRS. TIBBS was, beyond all dispute, the most tidy, fidgetty, thrifty 

 little personage that ever inhaled the smoke of London ; and the 

 house of Mrs. Tibbs was decidedly the neatest in all Great Coram- 

 Street. The area and the area steps, and the street-door and the street- 

 door steps, and the brass handle, and the door-plate, and the knocker, 

 and the fan-light were all as clean and as bright as indefatigable 

 white- washing, and hearth-stoning, and scrubbing and rubbing could 

 make them. The wonder was that the brass door-plate, with the 

 interesting inscription " MRS. TIBBS," had never caught fire from 

 constant friction, so perseveringly was it polished. There were meat- 

 safe-looking wire-blinds in the parlour windows, blue and gold cur- 

 tains in the drawing-room, and spring roller blinds, as Mrs. Tibbs 

 was wont, in the pride of her heart to boast, " all the way up." The 

 bell-lamp in the passage, looked as clear as a soap-bubble ; you could 

 see yourself in all the tables, and French polish yourself on any one 

 of the chairs ; the bannisters were bees'-waxed, and the very stair- 

 wires made your eyes wink, they were so glittering. 



Mrs. Tibbs was somewhat short of stature, and Mr. Tibbs was by 

 no means a large man ; he had moreover very short legs, but, by way 

 of indemnification, his face was peculiarly long ; he was to his wife 

 what the is in 90 he was of some importance with her he was 

 nothing without her. Mrs. Tibbs was always talking. Mr. Tibbs 

 rarely spoke ; but if it were at any time possible to put in a word, just 

 when he should have said nothing at all, he did it. Mrs. Tibbs de- 

 tested long stories, and Mr. Tibbs had one, the conclusion of which 

 had never been heard by his most intimate friends. It always began, 

 " I recollect when I was in the volunteer corps, in eighteen hundred 

 and six," but as he spoke very slowly and softly, and his better half 

 very quickly and loudly, he rarely got beyond the introductory sen- 

 tence. He was a melancholy specimen of the story-teller. He was 

 the wandering Jew of Joe Millerism ever pursuing and ever shunned. 



Mr. Tibbs enjoyed a small independence from the pension-list 

 about 43/. 15*. lOd. a-year. His father, mother, and five interesting 

 scions from the same stock drew a like sum from the revenue of a 

 grateful country, for what particular service it was never distinctly 

 known. But as this said independence was not quite sufficient to 

 furnish two people with all the luxuries of this life, it had occurred 

 to the busy little spouse of Tibbs that the best thing she could do 

 with a legacy of 700/., would be to take and furnish a tolerable house, 

 somewhere in that partially-explored tract of country which lies be- 

 tween the British Museum, and a remote village called Somer's Town, 

 for the reception of boarders. Great Coram-street was the spot 

 pitched upon. The house had been furnished accordingly ; two 

 female servants and a boy engaged, and an advertisement inserted in 

 the morning papers, informing the public that " Six individuals 

 would meet with all the comforts of a cheerful musical home, in a 



M.M. No. 101. 3 Q 



