d legs about, pulling up the sashes and
letting them violently down, or thrusting his head out of one window to
draw it in again and thrust it out of another. He carried in his
pocket, too, a fire-box of mysterious and unknown construction; and as
sure as ever Kit's mother closed her eyes, so surely--whisk, rattle,
fizz--there was the single gentleman consulting his watch by a flame of
fire, and letting the sparks fall down among the straw as if there were
no such thing as a possibility of himself and Kit's mother being
roasted alive before the boys could stop their horses. Whenever they
halted to change, there he was--out of the carriage without letting
down the steps, bursting about the inn-yard like a lighted cracker,
pulling out his watch by lamp-light and forgetting to look at it before
he put it up again, and in short committing so many extravagances that
Kit's mother was quite afraid of him. Then, when the horses were to,
in he came like a Harlequin, and before they had gone a mile, out came
the watch and the fire-box together, and Kit's mother as wide awake
again, with no hope of a wink of sleep for that stage.

'Are you comfortable?' the single gentleman would say after one of
these exploits, turning sharply round.

'Quite, Sir, thank you.'

'Are you sure? An't you cold?'

'It is a little chilly, Sir,' Kit's mother would reply.

'I knew it!' cried the single gentleman, letting down one of the front
glasses. 'She wants some brandy and water! Of course she does. How
could I forget it? Hallo! Stop at the next inn, and call out for a
glass of hot brandy and water.'

It was in vain for Kit's mother to protest that she stood in need of
nothing of the kind. The single gentleman was inexorable; and whenever
he had exhausted all other modes and fashions of restlessness, it
invariably occurred to him that Kit's mother wanted brandy and water.

In this way they travelled on until near midnight, when they stopped to
supper, for which meal the single gentleman ordered everything eatable
that the house contained; and because Kit's mother didn't eat
everything at once, and eat it all, he took it into his head that she
must be ill.

'You're faint,' said the single gentleman, who did nothing himself but
walk about the room. 'I see what's the matter with you, ma'am. You're
faint.'

'Thank you, sir, I'm not indeed.'

'I know you are. I'm sure of it. I drag this poor woman from the
bosom of her family at