h the women. Doctor Tadpole had
courted her ever since she had settled at Greenwich: they were the best
of friends, but the doctor's suit did not appear to advance.
Nevertheless, the doctor seldom passed a day without paying her a visit,
and she was very gracious to him. Although she sold every variety of
tobacco, she would not permit people to smoke, and had no seats either
in the shop or at the door--but to this rule an exception was made in
favour of the doctor. He seldom failed to be there every evening; and,
although she would not allow him a chair, she permitted him to remain
standing at the counter and smoke his cigar while they conversed. It
was this indulgence which occasioned people to think that she would
marry the doctor; but at last they got tired of waiting, and it became a
sort of proverb in Fisher's Alley and its precincts, when things were
put off to an indefinite period, to say, "Yes, that will be done when
the widow marries the doctor."

One evening, Ben had sent me to fill his tobacco--box at Mrs St.
Felix's, and when I went in, I found the doctor in her shop.

"Well, Master Tom Saunders or Mr Poor Jack," said the widow, "what may
your pleasure be?"

"Pigtail," said I, putting down the penny.

"Is it for your father, Jack, for report tells me that he's in want of
it?"

"No," replied I, "it's for old Ben--father's a long way from this, I
expect."

"And do you intend to follow him, Jack? It's my opinion you'll be the
very revarse of a good sailor if you cruise bottom up as you did on your
first voyage."

"It's not the pleasantest way of sailing, is it, Jack?" observed the
doctor.

"Not in winter-time," replied I.

The widow measured the length of the pigtail, as milliners do tape, from
the tip of the finger to the knuckle, and cut it off.

"And now will you oblige me with a cigar?" said the doctor. "I think
this is the sixth, is it not, Mrs St. Felix? so here's my shilling."

"Really, doctor, if it were not that the wry faces I make at physic
would spoil my beauty, I'm almost in honour bound to send for something
to take out of your shop, just by the way of return for your patronage."

"I trust you will never require it, Mrs St. Felix. I've no objection
to your sending for anything you please, but don't take physic."

"Well, my girl Jane shall have a dose, I declare, she is getting so fat
and lumpy. Only don't let it be laudanum, doctor, she's so
sleepy-headed already. I told