The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

122 ‘ HE STEAM PACKET. Mr. Pifpaf resolved to retrace his way that moment to Mr. Nagle’s ‘abode, and accuse him of being concerned in the robbery. But vain was it that the Chairman wandered amongst the streets of Dunkirk— like the crooked ways of a sinful people: half distracted at his loss, ‘and doubly deploring his want of foresight, and his absurd imprudence in accepting the invitation of the first stranger he fell against, he kept plodding about by turns towards every point of the compass. He accosted the few stragglers whom he met, with incoherent and inex- plicable questions, and at last thoroughly satisfied himself that i impor- tunities of this description were utterly futile. However, as he wan- dered about the streets, and as the noise of his heels upon the deserted pavement reverberated from every quarter in echoes louder and longer at each impetuous stride, his reflections grew morecalm. He thought that if he demanded the intervention of the law, he should only expose himself, injure the character of the club, and be well laughed at into the bargain. He accordingly resolved to hush up the matter as well as he could; and, as the fumes of the night’s debauch were now pretty well dissipated, his brain was clear enough to admit of the invention of a little melo-drama of nocturnal adventures, of which he was the hero, and which were to be related to his ae and daughters to ac- count for his extraordinary absence. As soon as all these matters were properly settled and digested i in 1 his mind, he set himself to work to find his way to the Hotel de Flandres ; and when he did eventually stop at the door thereof, he found that he had passed it, without being aware of it, some half dozen different times during his wayfarings on this memorable morning. In a word, it was six o’clock before he reached the inn; and with fear and trembling did he sneak up stairs to his wife’s acenene What passed ‘between them we cannot say: all that we can take upon ourselves to assert is, that when Mr. Pifpaf appeared at the breakfast table, his rubi- cund cheeks were overlaid with an interesting fretwork of scratches. } a ee, eee a RR I Lo LR A SON RRR ET NRT, Gomicbooks co