elf any worse.' The
piano was heard no longer, the knitting-needles were laid aside, drawing
was neglected, and mantua-making and millinery, on the smallest scale
imaginable, appeared to have become the favourite amusement of the whole
family. The parlour wasn't quite as tidy as it used to be, and if you
called in the morning, you would see lying on a table, with an old
newspaper carelessly thrown over them, two or three particularly small
caps, rather larger than if they had been made for a moderate-sized doll,
with a small piece of lace, in the shape of a horse-shoe, let in behind:
or perhaps a white robe, not very large in circumference, but very much
out of proportion in point of length, with a little tucker round the top,
and a frill round the bottom; and once when we called, we saw a long
white roller, with a kind of blue margin down each side, the probable use
of which, we were at a loss to conjecture. Then we fancied that Dr.
Dawson, the surgeon, &c., who displays a large lamp with a different
colour in every pane of glass, at the corner of the row, began to be
knocked up at night oftener than he used to be; and once we were very
much alarmed by hearing a hackney-coach stop at Mrs. Robinson's door, at
half-past two o'clock in the morning, out of which there emerged a fat
old woman, in a cloak and night-cap, with a bundle in one hand, and a
pair of pattens in the other, who looked as if she had been suddenly
knocked up out of bed for some very special purpose.

When we got up in the morning we saw that the knocker was tied up in an
old white kid glove; and we, in our innocence (we were in a state of
bachelorship then), wondered what on earth it all meant, until we heard
the eldest Miss Willis, _in propria persona_ say, with great dignity, in
answer to the next inquiry, '_My_ compliments, and Mrs. Robinson's doing
as well as can be expected, and the little girl thrives wonderfully.'
And then, in common with the rest of the row, our curiosity was
satisfied, and we began to wonder it had never occurred to us what the
matter was, before.

CHAPTER IV--THE ELECTION FOR BEADLE

A great event has recently occurred in our parish. A contest of
paramount interest has just terminated; a parochial convulsion has taken
place. It has been succeeded by a glorious triumph, which the
country--or at least the parish--it is all the same--will long remember.
We have had an election; an election for beadle. The supporter