-desk. The selected Readings were these--"Boots at the Holly-Tree
Inn," the murder scene of "Sikes and Nancy," and the grotesque monologue
of "Mrs. Gamp." The Archbishop and the other principal people of York
were there conspicuously noticeable in the stalls, eagerly listening and
keenly observant, evidently in rapt attention throughout the evening,
but more especially during the powerfully acted tragic incident from
"Oliver Twist." The Reading, as a whole, was more than ordinarily
successful--parts of it were exceptionally impressive. Directly it
was over, the Reader, having had a _coupe_ previously secured for his
accommodation in the express, was just barely enabled, at a rush, to
catch the train an instant or so before its starting. Then only, after
it had started, could he give a thought to his dress, changing his
clothes and snatching a morsel of supper in the railway carriage as he
whirled on towards London. The occasion referred to serves, at any
rate, to illustrate the wear and tear to which the Author had rendered
himself, through these Readings, more or less continually liable.

The jeopardy in which it placed his life at last was alarmingly
indicated by the peremptory order of his medical adviser, Mr. Frank
Beard, of Welbeck Street--immediately on his arrival in Preston on the
22nd of April, in answer to a telegram summoning him thither upon
the instant from London--that the Readings must be stopped then and
thenceforth. When this happened, a fortnight had not elapsed after the
grand Banquet given in honour of Charles Dickens at St. George's Hall,
in Liverpool. As the guest of the evening, he had, there and then, been
"cheered to the echo" by seven hundred enthusiastic admirers of his
presided over by the Mayor of Liverpool. That was on Saturday, the 10th
of April, during a fortnight's blissful rest in the whirling round of
the Readings. Immediately that fortnight was over, the whirling round
began again its momentarily interrupted gyrations. Three days in
succession there was a Reading at Leeds--on Thursday, the 15th, Friday,
the 16th, and Saturday, the 17th of April. On Monday, the 19th, there
was a Reading at Blackburn; on Tuesday, the 20th, another at Bolton; on
Wednesday, the 21st, another at Southport. Then came the morning of the
22nd, on the evening of which Thursday he was to have read at Preston.
By the then Dickens's medical adviser had arrived from London, the
audience had already begun assembling