462 City Sketches. 



" Yes, sharp, clever, Chitterling." 



" I believe you she is, you're just right there," replied the foreman 

 nodding his head. " If you have any awkward customers in your 

 shop at any time, Master Cobb, she's the one to tackle 'em." 

 " What do you mean ?" enquired Cobb blandly. 



" She'd snap their heads off in a jiffey," cried Chitterling. " She's 

 too hasty sometimes, to my mind ; out of all reason. I'll tell you 

 how she served two fellows as came into the shop one day. They; 

 wanted a quarter's water-rate ; well, she looks into the book, anc 

 finds as her father had paid it. She tells 'em so. No, they wouldn't 

 have it at any price. She tells 'em again, * It's paid,' says she. They 

 denies it. She denies it. They denies it. At last they said the> 

 wouldn't go out of the shop until she forked it over. What does she 

 do *? she comes out of her box, she takes 'em one after the other not 

 ceremony, mind ye no parley voo by the skruff of the neck, and 

 bundles 'em both out of doors." 



At the termination of this speech, Chitterling, recognizing a friend; 

 on the other side of the street, lifted his wooden shoes and ran off to 

 accost him. 



But, had a physiognomist been at Cobb's elbow at this moment,! 

 had he marked the expression of his face, and watched the direction 

 of his eye, he would have perceived at once, that the tobacconist 

 would, not unwillingly, have been led into the back-yard, there to 

 undergo the fate which had been dealt out to the "innocent creturs" 

 referred to by Chitterling. 



The anecdote reminded him so strongly of the late Mrs. Cobb \ 

 It was just what she would have done under the circumstances. A 

 fearful corollary unwound itself out of an argument founded upon the 

 recent disclosure. In a word, he feared that he had succeeded in 

 obtaining a second edition of the " Miseries of Human Life," with 

 additions \ 



It was with a sensible diminution of appetite that Cobb sat down 

 to breakfast ; and the minute observer might have detected a more 

 than ordinary gravity of demeanour as he fulfilled the duties of the 

 shop. 



He had not been long engaged at his counter, when the entrance t of 

 Mr. Larkins into the shop, who came to have his box replenished, 

 recalled his wandering thoughts into their most legitimate channel 

 business. Mr. Larkins was an old gentleman who had been for many 

 years past stamped by the neighbourhood as the most inveterate 

 newsmonger extant ; and the wonder was, that he had not long ago 

 been required to get himself stamped every morning at Somerset- 

 house and to pay the duty. Upon this occasion, however, he had 

 come to imbibe and not to convey intelligence. 



"Well, going to be married again, Cobb?" said Larkins. 



" I am about to be united, certainly," answered Cobb. 



" To Miss Griskin T 9 



" To that lady." 



"Ah! I wish you joy." 



" Thank ye," said Cobb, but there was something which he could 

 not but consider strange in the tone adopted by Larkins. 



