o!' cried Dumps again.

'Hollo!' echoed the passengers. The omnibus passed St. Giles's church.

'Hold hard!' said the conductor; 'I'm blowed if we ha'n't forgot the
gen'lm'n as vas to be set down at Doory-lane.--Now, sir, make haste, if
you please,' he added, opening the door, and assisting Dumps out with as
much coolness as if it was 'all right.' Dumps's indignation was for once
getting the better of his cynical equanimity. 'Drury-lane!' he gasped,
with the voice of a boy in a cold bath for the first time.

'Doory-lane, sir?--yes, sir,--third turning on the right-hand side, sir.'

Dumps's passion was paramount: he clutched his umbrella, and was striding
off with the firm determination of not paying the fare. The cad, by a
remarkable coincidence, happened to entertain a directly contrary
opinion, and Heaven knows how far the altercation would have proceeded,
if it had not been most ably and satisfactorily brought to a close by the
driver.

'Hollo!' said that respectable person, standing up on the box, and
leaning with one hand on the roof of the omnibus. 'Hollo, Tom! tell the
gentleman if so be as he feels aggrieved, we will take him up to the
Edge-er (Edgeware) Road for nothing, and set him down at Doory-lane when
we comes back. He can't reject that, anyhow.'

The argument was irresistible: Dumps paid the disputed sixpence, and in a
quarter of an hour was on the staircase of No. 14, Great Russell-street.

Everything indicated that preparations were making for the reception of
'a few friends' in the evening. Two dozen extra tumblers, and four ditto
wine-glasses--looking anything but transparent, with little bits of straw
in them on the slab in the passage, just arrived. There was a great
smell of nutmeg, port wine, and almonds, on the staircase; the covers
were taken off the stair-carpet, and the figure of Venus on the first
landing looked as if she were ashamed of the composition-candle in her
right hand, which contrasted beautifully with the lamp-blacked drapery of
the goddess of love. The female servant (who looked very warm and
bustling) ushered Dumps into a front drawing-room, very prettily
furnished, with a plentiful sprinkling of little baskets, paper
table-mats, china watchmen, pink and gold albums, and rainbow-bound
little books on the different tables.

'Ah, uncle!' said Mr. Kitterbell, 'how d'ye do? Allow me--Jemima, my
dear--my uncle. I think you've seen Jemima before, sir?'

'Have had th