es more
was in my carriage, on our way back to London. There, sir, was not that
generalship?"

"And you played this pretty trick off at my wife's expense, Mr.
Smithers," said I.

"At your wife's expense, certainly; but for the benefit of both of you."

"It's lucky, sir, that you are an old man," I replied, "and that the
affair happened ten years ago; or, by the Lord, Mr. Smithers, I would
have given you such a horsewhipping as you never heard of!"

But this was the way in which Mrs. Hoggarty was brought back to her
relatives; and this was the reason why we took that house in Bernard
Street, the doings at which must now he described.

CHAPTER X

OF SAM'S PRIVATE AFFAIRS AND OF THE FIRM OF BROUGH AND HOFF

We took a genteel house in Bernard Street, Russell Square, and my aunt
sent for all her furniture from the country; which would have filled two
such houses, but which came pretty cheap to us young housekeepers, as we
had only to pay the carriage of the goods from Bristol.

When I brought Mrs. H. her third half-year's dividend, having not for
four months touched a shilling of her money, I must say she gave me
50_l_. of the 80_l_., and told me that was ample pay for the board and
lodging of a poor old woman like her, who did not eat more than a
sparrow.

I have myself, in the country, seen her eat nine sparrows in a pudding;
but she was rich and I could not complain. If she saved 600_l_. a year,
at the least, by living with us, why, all the savings would one day come
to me; and so Mary and I consoled ourselves, and tried to manage matters
as well as we might. It was no easy task to keep a mansion in Bernard
Street and save money out of 470_l_. a year, which was my income. But
what a lucky fellow I was to have such an income!

As Mrs. Hoggarty left the Rookery in Smithers's carriage, Mr. Brough,
with his four greys, was entering the lodge-gate; and I should like to
have seen the looks of these two gentlemen, as the one was carrying the
other's prey off, out of his own very den, under his very nose.

He came to see her the next day, and protested that he would not leave
the house until she left it with him: that he had heard of his daughter's
infamous conduct, and had seen her in tears--"in tears, madam, and on her
knees, imploring Heaven to pardon her!" But Mr. B. was obliged to leave
the house without my aunt, who had a _causa major_ for staying, and
hardly allowed poor Mary out of her sight,--op