door by
ardent and enthusiastic Northerners. I recall how we walked round the
rather grim town, with its harsh red streets, the honest workers
staring at him hard. We put up at an old-fashioned hotel, the
best--the Royal it was called, where there was much curiosity on the
part of the ladies to get sly peeps at the eminent man. They generally
contrived to be on the stairs when he emerged. Boz always appeared,
even in the streets, somewhat carefully "made up." The velvet collar,
the blue coat, the heavy gold pin, added to the effect.

It was at this hotel, when the show was over, and our agreeable supper
cleared away, that I saw the pleasant Boz lying on the sofa somewhat
tired by his exertions, not so much on the boards as in that very
room. For he was fond of certain parlour gymnastics, in which he
contended with his aide-de-camp Dolby. Well, as I said, he was on his
sofa somewhat fatigued with his night's work, in a most placid,
enjoying frame of mind, laughing with his twinkling eyes, as he often
did, squeezing and puckering them up when our talk fell on Forster,
whom he was in the vein for enjoying. It had so fallen out that, only
a few weeks before, Trinity College, Dublin, had invited Forster to
receive an honorary degree, a compliment that much gratified him. I
was living there at the time, and he came and stayed with me in the
best of humours, thoroughly enjoying it all. Boz, learning that I had
been with him, insisted on my telling him _everything_, as by instinct
he knew that his friend would have been at his best. The scenes we
passed through together were indeed of the richest comedy. First I see
him in highest spirits trying on a doctor's scarlet robe, to be had on
hire. On this day he did everything in state, in his special "high"
manner. Thus he addressed the tailor in rolling periods: "Sir, the
University has been good enough to confer a degree on me, and I have
come over to receive it. My name is John Forster." (I doubt if his
name had reached the tailor). "Certainly, sir." And my friend was duly
invested with the robe. He walked up and down before a pier glass.
"Hey, what now? Do you know, my dear friend, I really think I must
_buy_ this dress. It would do very well to go to Court in, hey?" He
indulged his fancy. "Why I could wear it on many occasions. A most
effective dress." But it was time now to wait on "the senior Bursar,"
or some such functionary. This was one Doctor L----, a rough, even
uncout