d you will
readily suppose that I have not seen him.

Of news, I have not the faintest breath. I seem to have been doing
nothing all my life but riding in railway-carriages and reading. The
railway of the morning brought us through Castle Howard, and under the
woods of Easthorpe, and then just below Malton Abbey, where I went to
poor Smithson's funeral. It was a most lovely morning, and, tired as I
was, I couldn't sleep for looking out of window.

Yesterday, at Harrogate, two circumstances occurred which gave Arthur
great delight. Firstly, he chafed his legs sore with his black bag of
silver. Secondly, the landlord asked him as a favour, "If he could
oblige him with a little silver." He obliged him directly with some
forty pounds' worth; and I suspect the landlord to have repented of
having approached the subject. After the reading last night we walked
over the moor to the railway, three miles, leaving our men to follow
with the luggage in a light cart. They passed us just short of the
railway, and John was making the night hideous and terrifying the
sleeping country, by _playing the horn_ in prodigiously horrible and
unmusical blasts.

My dearest love, of course, to the dear girls, and to the noble Plorn.
Apropos of children, there was one gentleman at the "Little Dombey"
yesterday morning, who exhibited, or rather concealed, the profoundest
grief. After crying a good deal without hiding it, he covered his face
with both his hands, and laid it down on the back of the seat before
him, and really shook with emotion. He was not in mourning, but I
supposed him to have lost some child in old time. There was a remarkably
good fellow of thirty or so, too, who found something so very ludicrous
in "Toots," that he _could not_ compose himself at all, but laughed
until he sat wiping his eyes with his handkerchief. And whenever he felt
"Toots" coming again he began to laugh and wipe his eyes afresh, and
when he came he gave a kind of cry, as if it were too much for him. It
was uncommonly droll, and made me laugh heartily.

Ever, dear Georgy, your most affectionate.

[Sidenote: Miss Dickens.]

SCARBOROUGH ARMS, LEEDS, _Wednesday, Sept. 15th, 1858._

MY DEAREST MAMIE,

I have added a pound to the cheque. I would recommend your seeing the
poor railway man again and giving him ten shillings, and telling him to
let you see him again in about a week. If he be then still unable to
li