eart; in short, that he was setting up for a public character,
and a great gentleman, and affected to look down upon his old companions
with compassion and contempt. Whether these reports were at the time
well-founded, or not, certain it is that Mrs. Tulrumble very shortly
afterwards started a four-wheel chaise, driven by a tall postilion in a
yellow cap,--that Mr. Tulrumble junior took to smoking cigars, and
calling the footman a 'feller,'--and that Mr. Tulrumble from that time
forth, was no more seen in his old seat in the chimney-corner of the
Lighterman's Arms at night. This looked bad; but, more than this, it
began to be observed that Mr. Nicholas Tulrumble attended the corporation
meetings more frequently than heretofore; and he no longer went to sleep
as he had done for so many years, but propped his eyelids open with his
two forefingers; that he read the newspapers by himself at home; and that
he was in the habit of indulging abroad in distant and mysterious
allusions to 'masses of people,' and 'the property of the country,' and
'productive power,' and 'the monied interest:' all of which denoted and
proved that Nicholas Tulrumble was either mad, or worse; and it puzzled
the good people of Mudfog amazingly.

At length, about the middle of the month of October, Mr. Tulrumble and
family went up to London; the middle of October being, as Mrs. Tulrumble
informed her acquaintance in Mudfog, the very height of the fashionable
season.

Somehow or other, just about this time, despite the health-preserving air
of Mudfog, the Mayor died. It was a most extraordinary circumstance; he
had lived in Mudfog for eighty-five years. The corporation didn't
understand it at all; indeed it was with great difficulty that one old
gentleman, who was a great stickler for forms, was dissuaded from
proposing a vote of censure on such unaccountable conduct. Strange as it
was, however, die he did, without taking the slightest notice of the
corporation; and the corporation were imperatively called upon to elect
his successor. So, they met for the purpose; and being very full of
Nicholas Tulrumble just then, and Nicholas Tulrumble being a very
important man, they elected him, and wrote off to London by the very next
post to acquaint Nicholas Tulrumble with his new elevation.

Now, it being November time, and Mr. Nicholas Tulrumble being in the
capital, it fell out that he was present at the Lord Mayor's show and
dinner, at sight of the