618 Too Early. QDec. 



to my lord directly, and tell him that Mr. Henry Purvis, of Beverley, 

 would be glad to see him." 



The lacquey, who had often heard the name of Mr. Purvis mentioned 

 both by Lord Spanker and his steward as a gentleman deserving all 

 possible respect, changed his cue in a twinkling — " Beg ten thousand 

 pardons, sir," he cried, half whimpering ; " but, ah ! — really had no idea 

 — ah ! — my lord, however, never rises till eleven ; and — ah ! — perhaps 

 you would not wish that he should be wakened on purpose for your 

 name >" 



" Oh, certainly not," replied Purvis ; " I will take another opportunity 

 of calling." And, so saying, he descended the steps of the mansion, 

 while the footman pursued him with a thousand apologies, though he 

 could not help muttering when he thought that Master Henry Purvis 

 was out of hearing — " After all, what can gentlemen expect if they will 

 be too early }" 



Either our hero had very sharp ears, or else Lord Spanker's lacquey 

 had miscalculated his distance, for the remark reached the gentleman 

 from Yorkshire, and he felt half inclined on the impulse of the moment 

 to turn round and see whether it was not Mr. Boots who had followed 

 him from the City to repeat his admonition. " Well," quoth he to him- 

 self, " I may have misjudged the time ; but, thank Heaven, the day 

 now is wearing apace, so that for the next twelve hours there is no risk 

 of my being too early ;" and he wandered on up one street and down 

 another, staring at the shops, and blushing at the damsels, till his appe- 

 tite, accustomed in Yorkshire to a meal at noon, warned him that it was 

 time to cater for a dinner. " Pray, sir," asked he of a passenger, " how 

 far may it be to Lad-lane?" — "About three miles and a half" was the 

 reply — a much too distant prospect for a person whose appetite was fully 

 primed ; so he resolved to venture on the first inn or tavern he might see 

 for the purpose of supplying his wants. But a gentleman from York- 

 shire, on his first visit to a large town, cannot be supposed to have 

 attained any very nice powers of discrimination ; and it therefore natu- 

 rally enough happened to Mr. Purvis that he was quite beyond the dis- 

 tinctive grades of an eating-house, a chop-house, a tavern, and hotel ; 

 and that, on seeing invitingly written up on a door-post, " Joints always 

 ready," he came to the conclusion that " always ready" was the very 

 thing to suit the immediateness of his appetite. Armed with this opinion, 

 he soon found himself in the interior of this semper imrahis, and no sooner 

 had he duly deposited himself in one of the boxes, all of which pre- 

 sented a general vacancy to his hasty glance, than the waiter presented 

 himself. 



" What joints have you got ready ?" quoth Purvis. 



" Cold boiled beef — cold roast beef (very good cut) — cold roast pork 

 — cold mutton — cold veal and ham — half a cold duck — and a cold pig's 

 head !" 



" All cold, I declare ! — Have you got nothing hot }" asked he, with 

 the appetite. 



The waiter shook his head, as he replied in the same rapid, unvarying 

 tone as before — " Cold boiled beef — cold roast beef (very good cut) — 

 cold roast pork — cold mutton — cold veal and ham — half a cold duck — 

 and a cold pig's head !" 



Our Yorkshire friend, finding that all hopes of hot meat were vain, 

 resolved to content himself with some cold mutton, which was accord- 



