The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 162: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

156 THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON. “Where should it be going to, but Margate, to be} When Thornton called, by special invitation, at the | sure?” Shop of his former fellow-lodger’a few months after- Bob saw it all. The elaborate arrangement of the | wards, he found the cigar display had been superseded breakfast-table was explained. Another disaster had by a show of bonnets after the newest Parisian occurred, In his hurry to get on board at the wharf fashions, and on a further introduction to the interior he had never thought of looking after the vessel’s | arrangements of his household, he was presented to a destination, and now he began to sink under the over- | cheerful-looking little woman, who claimed the profits whelming pressure of such calamities. He grew | of that department as a portion of her matrimonial merose and testy; out of bumour with himself and | privileges, and who bore the name emblazoned on the all the world, with every particle of his milk of hu- | shop front. man kindness curdled and sour. He could have seen | The house had been taken just before, on the sole the steamer blown up with the utmost equanimity, and | responsibility of Mr, Chuckers; and though their chuckled over the catastrophe as a fitting retribution, | domestic economy was of no very extensive descrip- Leaving his outer coat in custody with the collector | tion, every thing was going on in a smooth and com - as a temporary substitute for the payment of a seven | fortable manner, and Bob felt proud to announce that shilling fare, Bob arrived, vexed and disconsolate, on | the duplicated business was in every way answering the landing-place at Jarvis’s jetty. Tor any especial , his expectations. There were two rooms above, which benefit that he derived from being there deposited, he | they let, as a slight help to the payment of the rent; might as well have been perched on the summit of | and when Thornton last called there, he found the the Great Pyramid. Every body had assembled there | tenants consisted of Mr. Grigg, the ticket-writer, and to welcome every body they knew, but he had come | Mr. Winkins, the comic singer, to whom, as the report unrecognised and unknown, and he felt dangerously | went, Bob was very far from proving troublesome as tempted to seek a saline bath for his woes, and wedge | an inexorable landlord. himself permanently between the rocks and the sea- weed, The thought came across him of the comfort- able party that had doubtless assembled that hour at the Grange, and how Carry Merton might be at that moment smiling on somebody else, and how his friend Dick Jones might be possibly assigning unpleasant reasons for his personal defalcation; and then as these phantoms of the brain taunted and troubled him, in mockery of his distress, a bold conception came to the rescue, and rvuted the others. It was only about five and thirty miles from Margate to Maidstone, and he would resolutely walk the distance, He set off at a furious pace with that determination. At twelve o’clock that night the jovial party at the Grange was suddenly startled in the midst of a part- ing chorus by the apparition of a figure, disguised in dust, and disencumbered of superfluous apparel, which turned out, upon investigation, to be Bob Chuckers. After clinging te the backs of stage coaches, and bribing railway stokers with a silk handkerchiet and an “ Albert cravat,” to have a cast down the rail on an engine, he had succeeded in getting to his desti- nation at last. Need we repeat the warm congratu- lations .that ensued from Annie Lambert and Dick Junes on the safety of his arrival, and the expression of their sympathy with his misadventures throughout the day? Need weinform the reader how a certain young lady, who was said to have been taxing him with infidelity all the afternoon, now, amidst a perfect floricultural show of blushes, most earnestly denied it? Such, of course, would be the conclusion every intelli- gent reader would draw; and it would be perhaps equally uncalled for to state, in addition, how, on the subsequent marriage of Miss Annie Lambert with Mr. Richard Jones, the bride was given away by Bob Chuckers; and how, on the marriage of Bob Chuckers with Miss Caroline Merton, a similar service was per- formed by Mr. Richard Jones. More minute his- torians might make such assertions with some foun- dation, but we decline a diffusiveness so unnecessary. It will be sufficient to state that, from the eventful day on which the circumstances above recorded took place, Bob Chuckers was never heard to boast of his being impervious to annoyances, and he confessed that though he had still a due regard for a healthful se- renity of temper, yet that accidents might happen in the best regulated families, which would prevent a wan “taking things easy.” CHAPTER XXXIIL THE BUBBLE BURST. AFTER @ brief reign as managing director of the — association he had succeeded in establishing, Mr. Par- kins found that the affairs of the company were ig to a crisis, and that be should require all his art manceuvring to escape from the consequences of his bubble exploding. Offices had been taken, with a large brass plate upon them, dazzling the eyes of passers-by; and a paraphernalia of models, maps, scientific testimonials, and sectional diagrams, had all assisted to procure at the outset a supply of available victims. But the constant promise, so often repeated, of producing, for the satisfaction of the shareholders, — the wonderful aerial conveyance itself, could not be expected to put off the evil day much longer. Already were the shareholders, who had paid their deposits, clamorous for a further knowledge of the invention; and though an experimental trip was hinted at as in process of arrangement, and a day was even specified when it should take place, doubts were fast arising, and opinions widely disseminated, that the propused revolution to be effected in the means of transit would result in a tremendous failure. One morning Mr. Parkins and his confederate Luke Sharp were discussing the future prospects of the company, and the best mode of bringing their scheme to a profitable climax, wher: the boy Dick thrust him- self deferentially in at the doorway, and signified that he had got a communication of importance for the private ear of the ex-attorney. “ Now then, Dick, what is it?” cried Parkins, as Sharp took up the newspaper and went into the obscurity of an inner room, where his head was noticed at intervals to rise inquisitively upwards | above the curtains of the glass door; “what’s the | news, my man ?—any fresh discovery, eh ?” ‘i “ Mr. Greene has sent you this note,” answered the tiger, “and has given me my discharge.” “Ob, he has, has he?” observed the other, taking the missive up carelessly, and tearing open the enve- lope. ‘Let us see what he has got to say for himselr as an excuse for stopping away so long.” And fixing | his attention on the enclosure, he began to make | omicbooks.com oe