was so
dark that I could hardly see my hand before me. The road was very
lonely, and I assure you, Tottle (this was a device to arrest the
wandering attention of that individual, which was distracted by a
confidential communication between Mrs. Parsons and Martha, accompanied
by the delivery of a large bunch of keys), I assure you, Tottle, I became
somehow impressed with a sense of the loneliness of my situation--'

'Pie to your master,' interrupted Mrs. Parsons, again directing the
servant.

'Now, pray, my dear,' remonstrated Parsons once more, very pettishly.
Mrs. P. turned up her hands and eyebrows, and appealed in dumb show to
Miss Lillerton. 'As I turned a corner of the road,' resumed Gabriel,
'the horse stopped short, and reared tremendously. I pulled up, jumped
out, ran to his head, and found a man lying on his back in the middle of
the road, with his eyes fixed on the sky. I thought he was dead; but no,
he was alive, and there appeared to be nothing the matter with him. He
jumped up, and putting his hand to his chest, and fixing upon me the most
earnest gaze you can imagine, exclaimed--'

'Pudding here,' said Mrs. Parsons.

'Oh! it's no use,' exclaimed the host, now rendered desperate. 'Here,
Tottle; a glass of wine. It's useless to attempt relating anything when
Mrs. Parsons is present.'

This attack was received in the usual way. Mrs. Parsons talked _to_ Miss
Lillerton and _at_ her better half; expatiated on the impatience of men
generally; hinted that her husband was peculiarly vicious in this
respect, and wound up by insinuating that she must be one of the best
tempers that ever existed, or she never could put up with it. Really
what she had to endure sometimes, was more than any one who saw her in
every-day life could by possibility suppose.--The story was now a painful
subject, and therefore Mr. Parsons declined to enter into any details,
and contented himself by stating that the man was a maniac, who had
escaped from a neighbouring mad-house.

The cloth was removed; the ladies soon afterwards retired, and Miss
Lillerton played the piano in the drawing-room overhead, very loudly, for
the edification of the visitor. Mr. Watkins Tottle and Mr. Gabriel
Parsons sat chatting comfortably enough, until the conclusion of the
second bottle, when the latter, in proposing an adjournment to the
drawing-room, informed Watkins that he had concerted a plan with his
wife, for leaving him and Miss Lillerto