Our Mutual Friend

ajestic Ma, one morning early, having a holiday before him. Pa a

onnet on. She was waiting at the foot of the stairs-was sitting on the bottom stair, in fact-to

eeting him with a hug, 'and all you have to do, is, to ea

new to the business, my dear, who can't make himse

on tiptoe; she stopping on every separate stair to put the tip of her forefinger on her ro

ve?' asked R. W., as sh

ming true, dear Pa, and the fair little

ir little man?'

e sat at table: 'Now, look here, sir. If you keep well up to the mark this day, what do you thi

I do, though. Wasn't it one of these beau-tiful

u? You can form no idea, sir, of the number of times he kissed quite a scrubby little piece-in comparison-that I cut off for him. And he wears it, too, round his neck, I can tell you! Near his heart!' said Bella, nodding. 'Ah! very near h

s on his white waistcoat, the discovery of which incongruous circumstance made her laugh): 'Now, dar

Bella,' r

ry fond

of you, my dar

You daren't do it in your responses at Church, and

the darlin

boy! Now again:-

always,' r

exat

weren't,

hat it was Pa's turn to make the responses, and clung to his neck. 'Dear Pa, if you knew how much I think this morning of what you told me once, about the first time of our seeing old Mr Harmon, whe

ays been nice bonnets, for they have always become you-or

hing (notwithstanding her repentance), with fantastic pl

. Wouldn't ha

you at all, unless I had meant to hurt yo

r; but I think it

I go on chattering, you'll b

received a parting hug, made off. When he had gone a little way, he looked back. Upon which, Bella set another of those finger seals upon the air, a

le bonnet of quiet, but on the whole of sly appearance, which she had yesterday made. 'I am going for a walk, Lavvy,' she said, as she stooped down and kisse

r sun! Behold Pa waiting for Bella behind a pump, at least three miles from the

least, Bella no sooner stepped ashore than she took Mr John Rokesmith's arm, without evincing surprise, and the two walked away together with an ethereal air of happiness which, as it were, wafted up from the earth and drew after them a gruff and glum old pensioner to see it out. Two wooden legs had this gruff and gl

st that he perked his neck and looked over the intervening people, as if he were trying to stand on tiptoe with his two wooden legs, took an observation of R. W.

e cherubs in the church architecture, and the cherub in the white waistcoat. Some remembrance of old Valentines, wherein a cherub, less appropriately attired for a proverbially uncertain cli

m stuck to them like wax. For years, the wings of his mind had gone to look after the legs o

wo wooden legs on which Gruff and Glum was reassuringly mounted, his conscience might have introduced, in the person of that pensioner, his own stately lady disguised, arrived at Greenwich in a car and griffins, like the spiteful Fairy at the christenings of the Princesses, to do something dreadful to the marriage service. And truly he had a momentary reason t

holy wedlock, you may (in short) consider it done, and withdraw your two wooden legs from this temple. To the foregoing purport, the M

uish that young woman, but slid into the happy sunlight, Mrs John Rokesmith instead. And long on the bright ste

a little letter, and read it aloud to Pa a

rest

I can ever deserve, except by loving him with all my heart. I thought it best not to mention it before

ffectionate daughter, B

esty looked so benign as on that blessed morning!-and then Bella popped it into the post

stately countenance tied up in a well-known pocket-handkerchief glooming down at him from a window of the Observatory, where the Familiars of the Astronomer Royal nightly outwatch the winking stars. But, the m

sex over both John and Pa, in an exulting and exalted flurry: as who should say, 'This is what you must all come to, gentlemen, when we choose to bring you to book.' This same young damsel was Bella's serving-maid, and unto her did deliver a bunch of keys, commanding treasures in the way of dry-saltery,

s of life! To whom said Bella, in her light-hearted surprise: 'Oh! How do you do again? What a dear old pensioner you are!' To which Gruff and Glum responded that he see her married this morning, my Beauty, and that if it warn't a liberty he wi

er again. 'You are a charming old pensioner,' said Bella, 'and I am so happy that I wish I could make you happy, too.' Answered Gruff and Glum, 'Give me leave to kiss your hand, my Lovely, and it's done!' So it was do

the very room of the very hotel where Pa and the lovely woman had once dined together! Bella sat between Pa and John, and divided her att

ig

ear,' returned the cherub, '

You ought to be

r, if I thought that I

s thankful to you-for my sake and your own sake both-as I am; don't you, dear little Pa? Look here, Pa!' Bella put her finger on her

a clergyman than the clergyman, and seemed to have mounted a great deal higher in the church: not to say, scaled the steeple. This dignitary, conferring in secrecy with John Rokesmith on the subject of punch and wines, bent

lanation in respect of cloudiness), and then jumped out of the frying-pan, were not to be recognized, it was only because they had all become of one hue by being cooked in batter among the whitebait. And the di

arty. Now, the supervising dignitary, the Archbishop of Greenwich, knew this as well as if he had performed the nuptial ceremony. And the loftiness with which hi

f his merit. This guileless youth, descrying the position of affairs, which even his innocence could not mistake, limited his waiting to languishing admiringly against the sideboard when Bella didn't want anything, and swooping at her when she did. Him, his Grace

hop in a low stately voice; 'he is a very

tural-'Bella, my love, this is so much more successful than any of our pa

t successful attempt at looking matronly that e

the attention of three of his ministers present, and staring at th

onfidence,' and would have retired with complete dignity but for a daring action issuing from the misguided brain of the young man on liking. He finding, by ill-fortune, a piece of orange flower so

the kindness to overlook it, in consideration of its being the act of a

ter, long and merry. 'Disguise is of no use,' said Bella; 'they all fin

those mysterious disappearances on Bella's part, she dutifully o

e talked about the

my d

think that there was no J

all, m

! Not a

people are aboard the ships that may be

it was time for him to get home to Holloway. 'Though I positively cannot tear myself away,' he cherub

cried John. 'I fill my gla

l also at once infer the nature and even the terms of the toast I am about to propose on the present occasion. Gentlemen-and Bella and John-the present occasion is an occasion fraught with feelings that I cannot trust myself to express. But gentlemen-and Bella and John-for the part I have had in it, for the confidence you have placed in me, and for the affectionate good-nature and

him to London, and was then lying at the floating pier, doing its best to bump the same to bits. But, the happy couple were not goin

m with her parasol to approach the si

my dar

h with that horrid

o speak of

nch your

icely,

g to him, Bella besought him in the prettiest manner; in a manner so engaging and so playful and so natural, that

e that, and everythin

my dea

ry or neglected, going awa

s you! No,

dearest Pa.

Take her away, my dea

uck out for them in its setting. And O there are days in this life, worth life and worth death. And