p in question were penned by a beadle in a commodious
pew, and, being early, sat for some time counting the congregation,
listening to the disappointed bell high up in the tower, or looking at
a shabby little old man in the porch behind the screen, who was ringing
the same, like the Bull in Cock Robin,' with his foot in a stirrup. Mr
Toots, after a lengthened survey of the large books on the reading-desk,
whispered Miss Nipper that he wondered where the banns were kept, but
that young lady merely shook her head and frowned; repelling for the
time all approaches of a temporal nature.

Mr Toots, however, appearing unable to keep his thoughts from the banns,
was evidently looking out for them during the whole preliminary portion
of the service. As the time for reading them approached, the poor
young gentleman manifested great anxiety and trepidation, which was not
diminished by the unexpected apparition of the Captain in the front row
of the gallery. When the clerk handed up a list to the clergyman, Mr
Toots, being then seated, held on by the seat of the pew; but when the
names of Walter Gay and Florence Dombey were read aloud as being in the
third and last stage of that association, he was so entirley conquered
by his feelings as to rush from the church without his hat, followed by
the beadle and pew-opener, and two gentlemen of the medical profeesion,
who happened to be present; of whom the first-named presently returned
for that article, informing Miss Nipper in a whisper that she was not
to make herself uneasy about the gentleman, as the gentleman said his
indisposition was of no consequence.

Miss Nipper, feeling that the eyes of that integral portion of Europe
which lost itself weekly among the high-backed pews, were upon her,
would have been sufficient embarrassed by this incident, though it had
terminated here; the more so, as the Captain in the front row of the
gallery, was in a state of unmitigated consciousness which could
hardly fail to express to the congregation that he had some mysterious
connection with it. But the extreme restlessness of Mr Toots painfully
increased and protracted the delicacy of her situation. That young
gentleman, incapable, in his state of mind, of remaining alone in the
churchyard, a prey to solitary meditation, and also desirous, no
doubt, of testifying his respect for the offices he had in some
measure interrupted, suddenly returned--not coming back to the pew,
but stationing himsel