The Dobson Family. 599 



matters being settled to her entire satisfaction, and the white satin 

 having after the most various consideration received the preference, 

 and the long wished for hour for dressing having arrived, behold 

 Emily bending over a large black leather trunk with the rapturous 



faze of a Persian Gheber at the setting sun, or a Roman pilgrim at 

 t. Peter's brazen toe : but why that sudden start, that look of speech- 

 less woe ? Reader, have you ever seen the look of a cockney sports- 

 man who, in pursuit of a tomtit which he thinks he has wounded, 

 has hastily scrambled through a hedge, and perceives himself within 

 five yards of a bull ? if so you may be able to form some sort of 

 idea of Emily's look, when, pulling out the white satin dress, she saw 

 the front and all the delicate blond tuckers blushing rosy red. The 

 phenomenon is thus to be accounted for/. At the Calais Custom 

 House a pot of the raspberry-jam had by the careless officers been 

 placed in the trunk that held all the full dresses ; arid now behold 

 the miserable consequences dress after dress was now with a sort 

 of frantic hope examined, alas, in vain ; for on each and all was 

 fixed the fell, the indelible stain that, like the brand upon the galley 

 slave, must for ever exclude them from those bright scenes in which 

 their owner fondly hoped to see them flourish. 



Julianna was nearly as much grieved as her sister, though she af- 

 fected not to be, and talked of " beauty unadorned.'' To dine that 

 day at the table d'H6te was quite impossible. A milliner was sent 

 for, to whom Emily detailed her grievances, and as it was a misfor- 

 tune that appeals most powerfully to the sympathies of a French- 

 woman, after truly compassionating the sorrow of the weeping 

 Emily, the little marchande faithfully promised that she should be 

 fully equipped for the campaign before the table d'Hote hour next 

 day. The following day Mr. Dobson went out to buy a travelling 

 carriage, which after a great deal of higgling he at last effected, and 

 returned just before the dinner hour. The dresses had arrived pre- 

 viously ; and Emily was endeavouring to pack herself into a remark- 

 ably low challie, which she had expressly ordered to be made con- 

 siderably too tight. 



They entered the salle manger, and Emily saw a number of ill- 

 dressed men so busily employed with the good things before them, 

 that she received not a single glance of admiration. They seated 

 themselves at table, and Julianna was placed next a stout red-faced 

 hypochondriacal Englishman, who was travelling to cure himself of a 

 whole hospital of diseases, which however he found to be increasing 

 instead of diminishing upon him. Of course all Julianna's romance 

 and quotations were entirely thrown away; he could talk of nothing 

 but the respective merits of the English and German physicians, 

 to the latter of whom he gave a decided preference, and dilated at 

 great length on the benefit he hoped to receive from the new homoe- 

 opathic system. He detailed a great number of cures, declaring at 

 the same time that he feared his case was hopeless, as all the physi- 

 cians differed as to the nature of the disease. " That scoundrel 

 Abernethy," said he, "had once the impudence to insinuate that there 

 was nothing the matter with me : indeed, I believe the fellow thought 

 me a little mad. When I went to consult him, he asked me 



