J 831.] Lodgings in the Strand. 53 



windows. The prudent portion of my intended visitors Requested me 

 not to put myself to any extraordinary trouble for their reception ; " a 

 few cold fowls and some wine," said they, " laid in a back room, will be 

 quite sufficient." — " How delightful a little dance would be after the 

 show !" whispered pretty Fanny Syllabub, " if it was only to the piano j 



I dare say IMr. has got one }" — '■' Oh !" responded Angelica Celes- 



tina, " I know he has, for he told me he sometimes amuses himself, 

 learning to play on it." Thus, another thorn was added by the thought- 

 less fair ones to those which were already stinging me to death ; they 

 determined on having a dance, and I — cur non omnia ? assented. A mi- 

 racle, thought I, can only save me now ! 



The first week of the awful month I passed in a sort of desperate 

 resignation to the certain fate I saw gradually approaching. I made no 

 preparations. All the under part of the house, I understood, was to be 

 thronged — no hope, therefore, remained in that quarter ; and, although 

 to bribe my next- room neighbour for a loan of his apartment I had 

 every wish, alas ! my coffers held my inclination in bondage. Sunday 

 the 7th, dawned. " Well," said I to myself, " if I can't shew ' fair play,' 

 let me exhibit a 'clear stage,' at all events;" saying which I jumped 

 from my sleepless couch, and immediately laid about me with a vigour 

 that astonished myself. " In the twinkling of a bed-post" I knocked 

 Jour of them fi'om their perpendicular on the floor, and in a few minutes 

 had thrust the whole sleeping paraphernalia from the room ; then I 

 seized hold of two crazy chairs, and excluded them likewise ; a table 

 shared the same fate, and, in short, a complete vacuum was in half an 

 hour obtained. The window was now wrenched from its moorings, and 

 a strict survey made of the territory I could command : this, as I before 

 stated, was certainly capable of accommodating about ten persons, and 

 these I determined should be the Bottleblossoms and the Wimples, who 

 would thus complete the number. — Fate might dispose of the rest. All 

 that day I laboured intensely to render this eyrie tenable, and the entrance 

 to it somewhat less hazardous. The apartment itself, too, by wheedling 

 my gruff landlady, I got into some sort of receptionable order, and, by 

 two or three personal sacrifices, I contrived to furnish my table with a 

 pail of tolerable looking decanters of wine, and a cold roast goose. Al- 

 together, towards evening, the thing did not present a very bad appear- 

 ance, and I contemplated it with feelings much relieved. The subsequent 

 day I determined to spend entirely among my friends, that it might not 

 appear that I was obliged to be personally concerned in the arrange- 

 ments for their reception at my " lodgings in the Strand ;" besides that, 

 I might afterwards throw much of the onus of the disappointment 

 which awaited them, on my landlady and her servants, who, of course, 

 were to take advantage of my absence, &c. &c. That night I spent with 

 the Bottleblossoms, and made desperate advances to Angelica Celestina. 

 I thought her eyes betrayed a particular interest for me, as they rested 

 on my haggard countenance ; and as I boldly asserted that love was 

 consuming me, I hesitated not to assign it as the cause of my altered ap- 

 peai-ance : this made no little impression on her, and as, towards the 

 close of our conference, her voice assumed a tone of tenderness, testi- 

 fying that love's relative was pleading my suit, I scarcely two or three 

 times restrained myself from making a frank avowal of my real circum- 

 stances, and throwing myself on her compassion and indulgence. I 

 forbore, however, for the present, but resolving to reconsider the step 



