ecured her victory. She waved her black wand over him,
and--he awoke not completely till about eight o'clock in the morning. A
second long-drawn sigh was preparing to follow its predecessor, when he
heard the clock strike eight, and sprang off the bed in a fright; for he
ought to have been at the shop an hour before. Dashing a little water
into his face, and scarce staying to wipe it off, he ran down-stairs,
through the court, and along the street, never stopping till he had
found his way into--almost the very arms of the dreaded Mr. Tag-rag;
who, rarely making his appearance till about half-past nine, had, as the
deuce would have it, happened to come down an hour and a half earlier
than usual on that particular morning, the only one out of several
hundreds on which Titmouse had been more than ten minutes beyond his
time.

"Yours ve-ry respectfully, Mr. Titmouse--Thomas Tag-rag!" exclaimed that
personage, with mock solemnity, bowing formally to his astounded and
breathless shopman.

"I--I--beg your pardon, sir; but I wasn't very well, and overslept
myself," stammered Titmouse.

"Ne-ver mind, Mr. Titmouse! ne-ver mind!--it don't much signify, as it
happens," interrupted Mr. Tag-rag, bitterly; "you've just got an hour
and a half to take this piece of silk, with my compliments, to Messrs.
Shuttle and Weaver, in Dirt Street, Spitalfields, and ask them if they
aren't ashamed to send it to a West-end house like mine; and bring back
a better piece instead of it! D' ye _hear_, sir?"

"Yes, sir--but--am I to go before my breakfast, sir?"

"Did I say a word about breakfast, sir? You heard my orders, sir; you
can attend to them or not, Mr. Titmouse, as you please!"

Off trotted Titmouse _instanter_, without his breakfast; and so Tag-rag
gained one object he had had in view. Titmouse found this rather trying:
a four-mile walk before him, with no inconsiderable load under his arm;
having, moreover, had nothing to eat since the preceding evening, when
he had partaken of a delicate repast of thick slices of bread, smeared
slightly over with somewhat high-flavored salt butter, and moistened
with a most astringent decoction of _quasi_ tea-leaves sweetened with
brown sugar, and discolored with sky-blue milk. He had not even a
farthing about him wherewith to buy a penny roll! As he went
disconsolately along, so many doubts and fears buzzed impetuously about
him, that they completely darkened his little soul, and bewildered his
pett