n opinion of her intelligence from
her pride in the baby, which was a very ordinary one. She created quite
a vulgar scene when it was brought to her, though she had given me her
word not to do so, what irritated me even more than her tears being
her ill-bred apology that she "had been 'feared baby wouldn't know her
again." I would have told her they didn't know any one for years had I
not been afraid of the girl Jenny, who dandled the infant on her knees
and talked to it as if it understood. She kept me on tenter-hooks by
asking it offensive questions, such as, "'Oo know who give me that
bonnet?" and answering them herself, "It was the pretty gentleman
there;" and several times I had to affect sleep because she announced,
"Kiddy wants to kiss the pretty gentleman."

Irksome as all this necessarily was to a man of taste, I suffered even
more when we reached our destination. As we drove through the village
the girl Jenny uttered shrieks of delight at the sight of flowers
growing up the cottage walls, and declared they were "just like a
music-'all without the drink license." As my horses required a rest, I
was forced to abandon my intention of dropping these persons at their
lodgings and returning to town at once, and I could not go to the
inn lest I should meet inquisitive acquaintances. Disagreeable
circumstances, therefore, compelled me to take tea with a waiter's
family--close to a window too, through which I could see the girl Jenny
talking excitedly to the villagers, and telling them, I felt certain,
that I had been good to William. I had a desire to go out and put myself
right with those people.

William's long connection with the club should have given him some
manners, but apparently his class cannot take them on, for, though he
knew I regarded his thanks as an insult, he looked them when he was
not speaking them, and hardly had he sat down, by my orders, than he
remembered that I was a member of the club, and jumped up. Nothing is in
worse form than whispering, yet again and again, when he thought I was
not listening, he whispered to Mrs. Hicking, "You don't feel faint?" or
"How are you now?" He was also in extravagant glee because she ate two
cakes (it takes so little to put these people in good spirits), and when
she said she felt like another being already the fellow's face charged
me with the change. I could not but conclude, from the way Mrs. Hicking
let the baby pound her, that she was stronger than she ha