ing,' said Mrs. T. 'A marriage, indeed
to rob me of my boarders--no, not for the world.'

Tibbs thought in his own mind that the event was by no means unlikely,
but, as he never argued with his wife, he put a stop to the dialogue, by
observing it was 'time to go to business.' He always went out at ten
o'clock in the morning, and returned at five in the afternoon, with an
exceedingly dirty face, and smelling mouldy. Nobody knew what he was, or
where he went; but Mrs. Tibbs used to say with an air of great
importance, that he was engaged in the City.

The Miss Maplesones and their accomplished parent arrived in the course
of the afternoon in a hackney-coach, and accompanied by a most
astonishing number of packages. Trunks, bonnet-boxes, muff-boxes and
parasols, guitar-cases, and parcels of all imaginable shapes, done up in
brown paper, and fastened with pins, filled the passage. Then, there was
such a running up and down with the luggage, such scampering for warm
water for the ladies to wash in, and such a bustle, and confusion, and
heating of servants, and curling-irons, as had never been known in Great
Coram-street before. Little Mrs. Tibbs was quite in her element,
bustling about, talking incessantly, and distributing towels and soap,
like a head nurse in a hospital. The house was not restored to its usual
state of quiet repose, until the ladies were safely shut up in their
respective bedrooms, engaged in the important occupation of dressing for
dinner.

'Are these gals 'andsome?' inquired Mr. Simpson of Mr. Septimus Hicks,
another of the boarders, as they were amusing themselves in the
drawing-room, before dinner, by lolling on sofas, and contemplating their
pumps.

'Don't know,' replied Mr. Septimus Hicks, who was a tallish, white-faced
young man, with spectacles, and a black ribbon round his neck instead of
a neckerchief--a most interesting person; a poetical walker of the
hospitals, and a 'very talented young man.' He was fond of 'lugging'
into conversation all sorts of quotations from Don Juan, without
fettering himself by the propriety of their application; in which
particular he was remarkably independent. The other, Mr. Simpson, was
one of those young men, who are in society what walking gentlemen are on
the stage, only infinitely worse skilled in his vocation than the most
indifferent artist. He was as empty-headed as the great bell of St.
Paul's; always dressed according to the caricatures publi