488 THE BOARDING-HOUSE. 



went to sleep, and woke up, and went io sleep again, and woke at 

 supper-time. 



* * ' * * * 



We are not about to adopt the licence of novel-writers, and to let 

 " years roll on ;" but we will take the liberty of requesting the reader 

 to suppose that six months have elapsed since the dinner we have 

 just described, and that Mrs. Tibbs' boarders have, during that pe- 

 riod, sang, and danced, and gone to theatres and exhibitions together, 

 as ladies and gentlemen, wherever they board, often do ; and we will 

 beg them, the period we have mentioned having elapsed, to imagine 

 further, that Mr. Septimus Hicks received, in his own bed-room (a 

 front attic), at an early hour one morning, a note from Mr. Calton, 

 requesting the favour of seeing him, as soon as convenient to himself, 

 in his (Calton's) dressing-room, on the second floor back. 



" Tell Mr. Calton I'll come down directly/' said Mr. Septimus to 

 the boy. " Stop Is Mr. Calton unwell ?" inquired the excited 

 walker of hospitals, as he put on a bed-furniture-looking dressing- 

 gown. 



" Not as I know on, Sir," replied the boy. " Please, Sir, he looked 

 rayther rum, as it might be." 



" Ah, that's no proof of his being ill," returned Hicks, uncon- 

 sciously. " Very well : I'll be down directly." Down stairs ran 

 the boy with the message, and down went the excited Hicks himself, 

 almost as soon as the message was delivered. " Tap, tap." " Come 

 in." Door opens, and discovers Mr. Calton sitting in an easy chair, 

 and looking more like a knocker than ever. Mutual shakes of the 

 hand exchanged, and Mr. Septimus Hicks motioned to a seat. A 

 short pause. Mr. Hicks coughed, and Mr. Calton took a pinch of 

 snuff. It was just one of those interviews where neither party knows 

 what to say. Mr. Septimus Hicks broke silence. 



" I received a note " he said, very tremulously, in a voice like a 

 Punch with a cold. 



" Yes," returned the other, " you did." 



" Exactly." 



Yes." 



Now, although this dialogue must have been satisfactory, both 

 gentlemen felt there was something more important to be said ; and 

 so they did as many in such a situation would have done they 

 looked at the table with a most determined aspect. The conversation 

 had been opened, however, and Mr. Calton made up his mind to con- 

 tinue it, with a regular double knock. He always spoke very 

 pompously. 



" Hicks," said he, " I have sent for you in consequence of certain 

 arrangements which are pending in this house, connected with a 

 marriage." 



" With a marriage !" gasped Hicks, compared with whose expres- 

 sion of countenance, Hamlet's, when he sees his father's ghost, is 

 pleasing and composed. 



" With a marriage !" returned the knocker. " I have sent for 

 you to prove the great confidence I can repose in you." 



