admitted to
herself that she was broad awake.

And Joe had lost an arm--he--that well-made, handsome, gallant fellow!
As Dolly glanced towards him, and thought of the pain he must have
suffered, and the far-off places in which he had been wandering, and
wondered who had been his nurse, and hoped that whoever it was, she
had been as kind and gentle and considerate as she would have been,
the tears came rising to her bright eyes, one by one, little by little,
until she could keep them back no longer, and so before them all, wept
bitterly.

'We are all safe now, Dolly,' said her father, kindly. 'We shall not be
separated any more. Cheer up, my love, cheer up!'

The locksmith's wife knew better perhaps, than he, what ailed her
daughter. But Mrs Varden being quite an altered woman--for the riots had
done that good--added her word to his, and comforted her with similar
representations.

'Mayhap,' said Mr Willet, senior, looking round upon the company, 'she's
hungry. That's what it is, depend upon it--I am, myself.'

The Black Lion, who, like old John, had been waiting supper past all
reasonable and conscionable hours, hailed this as a philosophical
discovery of the profoundest and most penetrating kind; and the table
being already spread, they sat down to supper straightway.

The conversation was not of the liveliest nature, nor were the appetites
of some among them very keen. But, in both these respects, old John more
than atoned for any deficiency on the part of the rest, and very much
distinguished himself.

It was not in point of actual conversation that Mr Willet shone so
brilliantly, for he had none of his old cronies to 'tackle,' and was
rather timorous of venturing on Joe; having certain vague misgivings
within him, that he was ready on the shortest notice, and on receipt of
the slightest offence, to fell the Black Lion to the floor of his own
parlour, and immediately to withdraw to China or some other remote and
unknown region, there to dwell for evermore, or at least until he had
got rid of his remaining arm and both legs, and perhaps an eye or so,
into the bargain. It was with a peculiar kind of pantomime that Mr
Willet filled up every pause; and in this he was considered by the Black
Lion, who had been his familiar for some years, quite to surpass and
go beyond himself, and outrun the expectations of his most admiring
friends.

The subject that worked in Mr Willet's mind, and occasioned these
demonstra