th smelling strongly
of varnish, under a chair in the hall, lurks about the house, gazing
upwards at the cornices, and downward at the carpets, and occasionally,
in a silent transport of enjoyment, taking a rule out of his pocket, and
skirmishingly measuring expensive objects, with unutterable feelings.
Cook is in high spirits, and says give her a place where there's plenty
of company (as she'll bet you sixpence there will be now), for she is
of a lively disposition, and she always was from a child, and she don't
mind who knows it; which sentiment elicits from the breast of Mrs Perch
a responsive murmur of support and approbation. All the housemaid hopes
is, happiness for 'em--but marriage is a lottery, and the more she
thinks about it, the more she feels the independence and the safety of
a single life. Mr Towlinson is saturnine and grim' and says that's his
opinion too, and give him War besides, and down with the French--for
this young man has a general impression that every foreigner is a
Frenchman, and must be by the laws of nature.

At each new sound of wheels, they all stop> whatever they are saying,
and listen; and more than once there is a general starting up and a cry
of 'Here they are!' But here they are not yet; and Cook begins to mourn
over the dinner, which has been put back twice, and the upholsterer's
foreman still goes lurking about the rooms, undisturbed in his blissful
reverie!

Florence is ready to receive her father and her new Mama Whether the
emotions that are throbbing in her breast originate In pleasure or in
pain, she hardly knows. But the fluttering heart sends added colour to
her cheeks, and brightness to her eyes; and they say downstairs, drawing
their heads together--for they always speak softly when they speak of
her--how beautiful Miss Florence looks to-night, and what a sweet young
lady she has grown, poor dear! A pause succeeds; and then Cook, feeling,
as president, that her sentiments are waited for, wonders whether--and
there stops. The housemaid wonders too, and so does Mrs Perch, who has
the happy social faculty of always wondering when other people wonder,
without being at all particular what she wonders at. Mr Towlinson, who
now descries an opportunity of bringing down the spirits of the ladies
to his own level, says wait and see; he wishes some people were well
out of this. Cook leads a sigh then, and a murmur of 'Ah, it's a
strange world, it is indeed!' and when it has gone roun