d she uttered a glad cry of recognition.

'Yes, I will!' cried Mark, 'another--one more--twenty more! You
didn't know me in that hat and coat? I thought you would have known me
anywheres! Ten more!'

'So I should have known you, if I could have seen you; but I couldn't,
and you spoke so gruff. I didn't think you could speak gruff to me,
Mark, at first coming back.'

'Fifteen more!' said Mr Tapley. 'How handsome and how young you look!
Six more! The last half-dozen warn't a fair one, and must be done over
again. Lord bless you, what a treat it is to see you! One more! Well, I
never was so jolly. Just a few more, on account of there not being any
credit in it!'

When Mr Tapley stopped in these calculations in simple addition, he did
it, not because he was at all tired of the exercise, but because he was
out of breath. The pause reminded him of other duties.

'Mr Martin Chuzzlewit's outside,' he said. 'I left him under the
cartshed, while I came on to see if there was anybody here. We want to
keep quiet to-night, till we know the news from you, and what it's best
for us to do.'

'There's not a soul in the house, except the kitchen company,' returned
the hostess. 'If they were to know you had come back, Mark, they'd have
a bonfire in the street, late as it is.'

'But they mustn't know it to-night, my precious soul,' said Mark; 'so
have the house shut, and the kitchen fire made up; and when it's all
ready, put a light in the winder, and we'll come in. One more! I long
to hear about old friends. You'll tell me all about 'em, won't you; Mr
Pinch, and the butcher's dog down the street, and the terrier over the
way, and the wheelwright's, and every one of 'em. When I first caught
sight of the church to-night, I thought the steeple would have choked
me, I did. One more! Won't you? Not a very little one to finish off
with?'

'You have had plenty, I am sure,' said the hostess. 'Go along with your
foreign manners!'

'That ain't foreign, bless you!' cried Mark. 'Native as oysters, that
is! One more, because it's native! As a mark of respect for the land we
live in! This don't count as between you and me, you understand,' said
Mr Tapley. 'I ain't a-kissing you now, you'll observe. I have been among
the patriots; I'm a-kissin' my country.'

It would have been very unreasonable to complain of the exhibition of
his patriotism with which he followed up this explanation, that it was
at all lukewarm or indifferent. When he had