"Why, Mary, he will soon have you to keep his own house, I presume, and
I shall lose you; indeed, your are more fit for such a situation than
your present one, so I must not regret it if you do."

"He has no idea of taking a house, madam," replied Mary, "nor have I any
of quitting you; your place is quite good enough for me. I promised to
go down and meet him this evening, with your permission, at the Austin
Arms."

"Certainly," replied Mrs Austin; and then the conversation dropped.

Our hero remained at the inn two days, a portion of which Mary passed
with him, and then he set off for Dudstone; he did not make Mary a
confident of his attachment to Emma Phillips, although he imparted to
her the death of Furness, and the relief it had afforded him, promising
to return to see her before he went back to Portsmouth.

Joey once more set off on his travels, and without incident arrived at
the good old town of Dudstone, where he put up at the Commercial Hotel;
his only object was, to ascertain the condition of his lodgings: for the
first two years he had sent the rent of the room to the old woman to
whom the house belonged, but latterly no application had been made for
it, although his address had been given; and, occupied by other business
more important, our hero had quite forgotten the affair, or if he did
occasionally recall it to his memory, it was soon dismissed again. His
key he had brought with him, and he now proceeded to the house and
knocked at the door, surmising that the old woman was possibly dead, and
his property probably disposed of; the first part of the surmise was
disproved by the old woman coming to the door; she did not recognise our
hero, and it was not until he produced the key of his room that she was
convinced that he was the lawful owner of its contents. She told him
she could not write herself, and that the party who had written to
Portsmouth for her was dead, and that she felt sure he would come back
at some time and settle with her; and, moreover, she was afraid that the
furniture would be much injured by having been shut up so long, which
was not only very likely, but proved to be the case when the door was
opened; she also said that she could have made money for him, had he
allowed her to let the lodgings furnished, as she had had several
applications. Our hero walked into his apartment, which certainly had a
very mothy and mouldy appearance. As soon as a fire had been lighted,
he col