apman!" bawled the footman.

"The nose-reader!" piped Mr. Sagittarius. "The nose-reader from the
Butts!"

"Verano!" screamed the footman, triumphantly submerging the flute and
the twenty guitars. "Verano!"

"The South American Irish palmist from the Downs! My love," said Mr.
Sagittarius, in a cracking voice, "we are in it to-night, we are indeed;
we are fairly and squarely in it."

Madame began to bridle and to look as ostentatious as a leviathan.

"And if we are, Jupiter!" she said in a voice that rivalled the
footman's--"if we are, we are merely in our element. They needn't think
to come over me!"

"Hush, my love! Remember that--"

"Dr. Birdie Soames!" interposed the vibrant bass of the footman.

"The physiognomy lady from the Common!" said Mr. Sagittarius, on the
point of breaking down under the emotion of the moment. "Scot! Scot!
Great Scot!"

Mrs. Bridgeman was now completely surrounded by a heterogeneous mass of
very remarkable-looking people, among whom were peculiarly prominent an
enormously broad-shouldered man, with Roman features and his hair cut
over his brow in a royal fringe, a small woman with a pointed red nose
in bead bracelets and prune-coloured muslin, and an elderly female with
short grizzled hair, who wore a college gown and a mortar-board with a
scarlet tassel, and who carried in one hand a large skull marked out
in squares with red ink. These were Verano, the Irish palmist from the
Downs; Mrs. Eliza Doubleway, the soothsayer from Beck; and Dr. Birdie
Soames, the physiognomy lady from the Common. Immediately around these
celebrities were grouped a very pale gentleman in a short jacket, who
looked as if he made his money by eating nothing and drinking a great
deal, a plethoric female with a mundane face, in which was set a large
and delicately distracted grey eye; and a gentleman with a jowl, a pug
nose, and a large quantity of brass-coloured hair about as curly as hay,
which fell down over a low collar, round which was negligently knotted
a huge black tie. This trio comprised Mr. Bernard Wilkins, the Prophet
from the Rise; Madame Charlotte Humm, the crystal-gazer from the Hill;
and Professor Elijah Chapman, the nose-reader from the Butts. No sooner
was the news of the arrival of these great and notorious people bruited
abroad through the magnificent saloons of Zoological House than Mrs.
Bridgeman's guests began to flock around them from all the four quarters
of the mansion, deserting eve