ry you whenever
you please."

"So this was all a trick," cried Patience, pettishly; "I wish I had
known it, I would have retaliated upon you nicely. You ought to be
ashamed of yourself, Major Pillichody, to lend a helping-hand in such a
ridiculous affair."

"I did it to oblige my friend Blaize," replied Pillichody. "It was
agreed between us that if you showed any inconstancy, you were to be
mine."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Patience. "I would not advise you to repeat the
experiment, Mr. Blaize."

"I never intend to do so, my angel," replied the porter. "I esteem
myself the happiest and most fortunate of men."

"You have great reason to do so," observed Pillichody. "I do not despair
of supplanting him yet," he muttered to himself. "And now, farewell!" he
added aloud; "I am only in the way, and besides, I have no particular
desire to encounter Mr. Bloundel or his apprentice;" and winking his
solitary orb significantly at Patience, he strutted away. It was well he
took that opportunity of departing, for the lovers' raptures were
instantly afterwards interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Bloundel, who
was greatly delighted to see the porter, and gave him a hearty welcome.

"Ah, sir, I have had a narrow escape," cried Blaize, "and never more
expected to see you, or my mother, or Patience. I _have_ had the plague,
sir, and a terrible disorder it is."

"I heard or your seizure from Leonard Holt," replied Mr. Bloundel. "But
where have you been since you left the hospital at Saint Paul's?"

"In the country, sir," rejoined Blaize; "sometimes at one farm-house,
and sometimes at another. I only returned to London yesterday, and met
an old friend, whom I begged to go before me, and see that all was right
before I ventured, in."

"We have all been providentially spared," observed Mr. Bloundel, "and
you will find your mother as well as when you last quitted her. You had
better go to her."

Blaize obeyed, and was received by old Josyna with a scream of delight.
Having embraced him, and sobbed over him, she ran for a bottle of sack,
and poured its contents down his throat so hastily as nearly to choke
him. She then spread abundance of eatables before him, and after he had
eaten and drank his full, offered him as a treat a little of the plague
medicine which she had in reserve.

"No, thank you, mother," replied Blaize. "I have had enough of _that_.
But if there should be a box of rufuses amongst the store, you can bring
it, as I