And a day came when he found he could not keep up these two shops
and his private house in Tavistock Square as well; the carriage was
put down first--a great distress to Mrs. Gibson; and finally, to her
intense grief, it became necessary to give up the pretty house
itself.

It was decided that their home in future most be over the new
emporium in Conduit Street; Mrs. Gibson had a properly constituted
English shopkeeper's wife's horror of living over her husband's
shop--the idea almost broke her heart; and as a little consolation,
while the necessary changes were being wrought for their altered
mode of life, Mr. Gibson treated her and Leah and my sister to a
trip up the Rhine--and Mrs. Bletchley, the splendid old Jewess
(Leah's grandmother), who suffered, or fancied she suffered, in her
eyesight, took it into her head that she would like to see the
famous Dr. Hasenclever in Riffrath, and elected to journey with
them--at all events as far as Duesseldorf. I would have escorted
them, but that my father was ill, and I had to replace him in Barge
Yard; besides, I was not yet quite cured of my unhappy passion,
though in an advanced stage of convalescence; and I did not wish to
put myself under conditions that might retard my complete recovery,
or even bring on a relapse. I wished to love Leah as a sister; in
time I succeeded in doing so; she has been fortunate in her brother,
though I say it who shouldn't--and, O heavens! haven't I been
fortunate in my sister Leah?

My own sister Ida wrote to Barty to find rooms and meet them at the
station, and fixed the day and hour of their arrival; and
commissioned him to take seats for Gluck's _Iphigenia_.

She thought more of _Iphigenia_ than of the Drachenfels or
Ehrenbreitstein; and was overjoyed at the prospect of once more
being with Barty, whom she loved as well as she loved me, if not
even better. He was fortunate in his sister, too!

And the Rhine in May did very well as a background to all these
delights.

So Mr. Babbage (the friend of the family) and I saw them safely on
board the _Baron Osy_ ("the Ank-works package," as Mrs. Gamp called
it), which landed them safely in the Place Verte at Antwerp; and
then they took train for Duesseldorf, changing at Malines and
Verviers; and looked forward eagerly, especially Ida, to the meeting
with Barty at the little station by the Rhine.

* * * * *

Barty, as we know, started for Riffrath at Marti