David Elginbrod

heigh ho! unto

s feigning, most

igh ho!

e is mos

As You

ow. And how different it was from the London of spring, which had lingered in his memory and imagination; when, transformed by the "heavenly alchemy" of the piercing sunbeams that slanted across the streets from chimney-tops to opposite basements, the dust and smoke showed great inclined planes of light, up whose steep slopes one longed to climb to the fountain glory whence they flowed! Now the streets, from garret to cellar, seemed like huge kennels of muddy, moist, filthy air, down through which settled the heavier particles of smoke and rain upon the miserable human beings who crawled below in the deposit, like shrimps in the tide, or whitebait at the bottom of the muddy Thames. He had to wade throu

d with the advertisements. He soon came upon a column from which single gentlemen appeared to be in request as lodgers. Looking over these advertisements, which had more interest for him at the moment than all home and foreign news, battles and murders included, he drew a map from his pocket, and began to try to find out some of the localities indicated. Most of them were in or towards the suburbs. At last he spied one in a certain square, which, after long and diligent search, and with the assistance of

the metropolis. The centre was occupied by grass and trees, inclosed within an iron railing. All the leaves were withered, and many had dropped already on the pavement below. In the middle stood the statue of a queen, of days gone by. The tide of fashion had rolled away far to the west, and yielded a free passage to the inroads of commerce, and of the general struggle for ignoble existence, upon this once favoured island in its fluctuating waters. Old windows, flush with the external walls, whence had glanced fair eyes to which fashion was even dearer than beauty, now displayed Lodgings to Let between knitted curtains, from which all id

rouble you further. I see y

ady looke

ng-room apartments, the

ld be giving you quite

ways given satisfactio

ake them," said Hugh, thinking it better to be open than to hurt

now what to

dy. Then, after a pause

last, but I don't kno

Once or twice she looked

e respe

" said Hugh

time not in

rooms woul

lf a one, if there were n

ldn't give much tr

and water to w

ouldn't di

d Hugh; but the second and

uldn't smok

N

our boots clean befor

ing to be exceedingly amused, but

ou any

me. But when I shall get mo

ich I'll make comfortable for you; and you may

at is t

eek-to you. Would y

f you p

d floor, and showed him a good-s

delightfully

ttle more comfortabl

h. Shall I pay you

. "I might want to get rid of you, you kn

I will go and fetch my luggage.

ace like London. The sooner you come home

r her odd rough manner, and the real kindness of her rude words. He came to the conclusion that she was naturally kind to profusion, and that this kindness had, some time or other, perhaps repeatedly, been taken shameful advantage of; that at last she had come

old maid, she had been jilted some time by a youth about the same size as Hugh; and therefore she loved him the moment she saw him. Or, in short, a thousand things. Cer

im to carry his boxes up-stairs; and when he reached his room, he found a fire burning cheerily, a muffin down before it, a tea-kettle singing on the hob, and the tea-tray set upon a nice white cloth on a table right in fr

said Hugh. "Thi

and nodding her head as much as to say: "I know it is. I intended it should be

next. A knock at the door-and his landlady entered, laid a penny newspaper on the table, and went away. This was just what he wanted to comple

t am I to

, and finds room to do the next again; and so he is sure to arrive at something, for the onward march will carry him with it. There is no saying to what perfection of success a man may come, who begins with what he can do, and uses the means at his hand. He makes a vortex of action, however slight

like a mass of adamant, on which he could not gain the slightest hold, or make the slightest impression. Who would introduce him to p