"Wherefore is this outcry ?" said Mr. L'Estrange, raising his almost imperceptible eyebrows. "My life! what is the matter? A pity," he added, passing his hand over his forehead, "that I cannot pursue my studies in peace-ever these alarming and heathenish diversions."

"Bring me my salts, sir," cried his wife.

"My dearest love, I will," said the phantom.

"Diversions, do you call them?" exclaimed Mrs. L'Estrange, sniffing vigorously at her salts.

"Pardon me," cried the husband, hastily; "I used the word in its strict sense. But what, my angel, has occurred? who is this youth ?”

Mrs. L'Estrange now recounted her mishap, and concluded by calling me a monster, and a young Scythian barbarian.

"Ah! I see-I see," said Mr. L'Estrange, taking a pinch of snuff, "fortuitous, fortuitous. Is the mouth better now, my life?"

Something easier, I think,” replied the lady; "send the odious boy away."

"Now, I could prove to demonstration," said her husband, not heeding her, "either that you, my dear, were right, and the youth wrong; or that the youth was right, and you, my love, were wrong. Firstly-*

"None of your rights and your wrongs, and your demonstrations, I beseech you," cried Mrs. L'Estrange; "they will only tire youryour"

"Jaws?" suggested L'Estrange.

"Yes, without easing mine."

L'Estrange gently pawed the air." A lingering peevishness!" he remarked, in an undertone. "Come hither, youth. Cannot you beg pardon of this lady for the alarm you have occasioned her ?"

"Certainly," I answered, and stepping forward I expressed, in becoming terms, my regret at what had happened-declared that it was purely accidental-and said, in conclusion, that I was certain I should not plead in vain for forgiveness from so fine and so handsome a lady.

The face of Mrs. L'Estrange underwent gradual molli

fication, as I proceeded with my speech, and by the time I had concluded it had settled into confirmed benignity. "Didst hear, L'Estrange?" she inquired.

"Apt, concise, sufficient," he replied; "take up your bag, youth, and depart.”

"Canst make a bow, child?' she said, with an amiable smile.

I performed a respectful inclination.

"Didst see, Jocelyn ?" she demanded.

"Decent, polite, urbane," said he.

"Give him a shilling, Mr. L'Estrange, I beg; I will reimburse you."

I had made my parting bow, and was on the stairs, when he followed me.

"Stay!" said he. His eyes were up-turned for a time, in meditation.

"Inexplicable beings are women!" he uttered, at length: "ah! I forgot the shilling ;" and drawing one from his pocket, he pressed it into the palm of my hand, as though designing to put me off with a mere impression of the coin. "Go," he said, relinquishing it, and making an abortive endeavour at a wink," and thank the handsome lady for it."

When I got back, I could not forbear, Short being absent, telling my mistress what had happened. She laughed heartily, shaking her vast sides with evident satisfaction.

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"Here," said I, "is what Carnaby wanted," producing the shilling, which, with a fillip of my thumb-nail, I sent flying towards him. He caught it with admirable dexterity, and committed it to his pocket. "How very kind of the good lady to send it to me!"

"Did any one ever see the like of that?" cried Mrs. Short; "you sneaking hound! Give it back, this instant." Carnaby looked astonishment at the unreasonable proposition. Happily for his bones, Short, at this instant, returned.

"I'll take the dust out of your coat for this another time," said Mrs. Short, who, by way of entertaining her consort, forthwith narrated the particulars of my interview with Mrs. L'Estrange.

However greatly Mrs. Short might have been tickled by my recital, certain it is, her husband could discover no humorous properties therein; for, knitting his brows savagely, and setting his teeth on edge, he cast a baleful glance upon me, and worked his fingers upon the palm of his hand, as though inwardly moulding some fell intent.

"And so," cried he, "I'm to lose my best customer through that chap's impudence. No-no-that's a shoe that won't fit, as you say, Mrs. Short. I've been longing to be at him this week past, and now I've caught him, sure enough." With this, he laid hold upon his often-menaced strap, and making towards me, dealt me a severe blow upon the side of the head. I caught the weapon with one hand, but it slipped through my fingers, and with the other aimed a retort, as he retreated, at the rascal's nose; which was so nearly taking effect that he rubbed that feature incredulously, shaking his ugly jole as he did so. Snatching up a heavy last, as he prepared to repeat his blow, I bade him be upon his guard.

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"There, now, drop that," exclaimed his wife, interposing; "that dumpling's too hard for the meat."

"I shall not," said I, "till he lays down the strapthe base scoundrel."

"Oh, Freeman!" cried Carnaby, who had been sitting open-mouthed during this scene, but who now arose, outspread, as it were, like a phoenix, "you wouldn't go to fling that-oh la! at dear good master. Murder!"

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There, now, keep your rosin for another fiddlestick,” said Mrs. Short, lending him an open-handed cuff, that sent him careering to the other end of the shop.

"I'll give it to the villain, soundly," exclaimed Short, who took advantage of my momentary observation of Carnaby's evolutions to direct another cut at me, which I, however, evaded. The moment after a hollow sound proceeded from his stomachic region. The last had taken terrific effect in that quarter, and fell, as though purposely, upon his gouty toe.

All now became confusion worse confounded. Carnaby dashed forward with affectionate eagerness towards his

grinning master, hovering about him with whimpering solicitations as to the amount of injury he had sustained. The awkward cub, however, during these officious blandishments, chanced to set his heel upon the ill-fated member, which the last had just previously inflamed to torture.

"Curse you, you blaring brute, and you, too!" cried Short, in a a paroxysm of rage and pain; "see how you like that," and down went poor Carnaby upon hands and knees.

In the meanwhile, Mrs. Short, incensed at my treatment of her husband, advanced towards me with an enormous fist, designing to bestow upon me, as she would say, "a goose for my gander;" but unfortunately for her, and just the reverse, perhaps, for me-just as she was making a fearful spring at me, Carnaby, impelled by Short, fell, as the vulgar have it, "flop " between us, over whom the fat woman tumbled like a sack of sand.

"Drat that confounded blockhead, he's always-" I heard no more. Taking advantage of the helpless condition of the trio, I seized my hat, and made the best of my way out of the shop.

CHAPTER IV.

IN WHICH RICHARD SAVAGE SHOWS HIS SPIRIT, AND GREATLY
PERPLEXES HIS
AGED PROTECTRESS, WITH A MOMENT'S
GLIMPSE OF A REMARKABLE LADY, AND HIS INTRODUCTION
TO THE FAMILY OF A STRANGE ORIGINAL.

My first impulse, when I reached Lincoln's Inn Fields, led me to indulge in an immoderate fit of laughter at the expense of the cordwaining crew, whom I had just left in so disastrous a plight. But presently, the stinging pangs of Short's strap, which still preyed upon my ear, caused my thoughts to tend towards Ludlow, whom I resolved immediately to find out, and tax as the chief author of my disgraceful wrongs. By dint of many inquiries, and my partial recollection of the locality of Lady Mason's house, was, at length, enabled to find my way thither.