ich he has told in the course of this story.

"Married! the rascal, is he?" thought the old gentleman.

"They will do it, sir," said Pen; and went and opened the door. Mr. and
Mrs. Samuel Huxter issued thence, and both came and knelt down before
the old gentleman. The kneeling little Fanny found favour in his sight.
There must have been some thing attractive about her, in spite of
Laura's opinion.

"Will never do so any more, sir," said Sam.

"Get up, sir," said Mr. Huxter. And they got up, and Fanny came a little
nearer and a little nearer still, and looked so pretty and pitiful,
that somehow Mr. Huxter found himself kissing the little crying-laughing
thing, and feeling as if he liked it.

"What's your name, my dear?" he said, after a minute of this sport.

"Fanny, papa," said Mrs. Samuel.

CHAPTER LXXVI. Exeunt Omnes

Our characters are all a month older than they were when the
last-described adventures and conversations occurred, and a great number
of the personages of our story have chanced to reassemble at the little
country town where we were first introduced to them. Frederic Lightfoot,
formerly maitre d'hotel in the service of Sir Francis Clavering, of
Clavering Park, Bart., has begged leave to inform the nobility and
gentry of ------shire that he has taken that well-known and comfortable
hotel, the Clavering Arms, in Clavering, where he hopes for the
continued patronage of the gentlemen and families of the county. "This
ancient and well-established house," Mr. Lightfoot's manifesto states,
"has been repaired and decorated in a style of the greatest comfort.
Gentlemen hunting with the Dumplingbeare hounds will find excellent
stabling and loose-boxes for horses at the Clavering Arms. A commodious
billiard-room has been attached to the hotel, and the cellars have been
furnished with the choicest wines and spirits, selected, without regard
to expense, by C. L. Commercial gentlemen will find the Clavering Arms
a most comfortable place of resort: and the scale of charges has been
regulated for all, so as to meet the economical spirit of the present
times."

Indeed, there is a considerable air of liveliness about the old inn.
The Clavering arms have been splendidly repainted over the gateway. The
coffee-room windows are bright and fresh, and decorated with Christmas
holly; the magistrates have met in petty sessions in the card-room
of the old Assembly. The farmers' ordinary is held as of old, and
fr