and a hand-grenade is thrown, unseen, at the
feet of the latter.--Country life; Yatton; Fotheringham; the
two beauties; and an angel beset by an imp 297

IX. The explosion of the hand-grenade; shattered hopes and
happiness.--A winter evening's gossip at the Aubrey Arms,
among Yatton villagers, and its grievous interruption 332

X. Gammon _versus_ Tag-rag; and Snap _cum_ Titmouse,
introducing him to life in London--of one sort.--The feast
of reason and the flow of soul at Alibi House; Mr. Quirk's
banquet to Titmouse, who is overcome by it.--Titmouse seems
to hesitate between Miss Quirk and Kate Aubrey 372

XI. Suffering; dignity; tenderness; resignation 415

XII. How the great flaw was discovered in Mr. Aubrey's title; but
a terrible hitch occurs in the proceedings of his opponents 431

XIII. Madam Aubrey's death and burial; Gammon smitten with the
sight of Kate Aubrey's beauty; and a great battle takes
place at the York assizes for Yatton 454

Notes 507

CHAPTER I.

About ten o'clock one Sunday morning, in the month of July 18--, the
dazzling sunbeams, which had for several hours irradiated a little
dismal back attic in one of the closest courts adjoining Oxford Street,
in London, and stimulated with their intensity the closed eyelids of a
young man--one TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE--lying in bed, at length awoke him. He
rubbed his eyes for some time, to relieve himself from the irritation
occasioned by the sudden glare they encountered; and yawned and
stretched his limbs with a heavy sense of weariness, as though his sleep
had not refreshed him. He presently cast his eyes towards the heap of
clothes lying huddled together on the backless chair by the bedside,
where he had hastily flung them about an hour after midnight; at which
time he had returned from a great draper's shop in Oxford Street, where
he served as a shopman, and where he had nearly dropped asleep, after a
long day's work, in the act of putting up the shutters. He could hardly
keep his eyes open while he undressed, short as was the time required to
do so; and on dropping exhausted into bed, there he had continued, in
deep unbroken slumber, till the moment of his being presented to the
reader.--He