cane-bottomed chair, to receive the company. It
was perilous to speak to her. Where was the
voice? Hark! There it rang out again! "Mr. and
Mrs. Jenkinwaters! Miss Jenkinwaters! Mr.
Alfred Jenkinwaters! Major Pumpes!" Surely
it was the voice of the noble Aubrey? But here
was a stately man, in a white tie and a white
waistcoat, stepping up-stairs, with a bearing infinitely
majestic, a herald to the Jenkinwaters family.

I could not recognise him. I should never
have known him. But the voice still rang
musically in my ears. And yet there was
a mournfulness in his deportment, an air of
suffering and placid resignation in the way in
which he went through his function, that was to
me inexpressibly affecting. I longed to accost,
him, to enter. into familiar relations with him.
But I durst not ; for our mother was still sitting
enthroned in the cane-bottomed chair.

I got back to the cornet, with whom I was
now on a footing of deep and confidential
intercourse. "I have seen him," I whispered. "Mr.
Lorimer is—"(The noble Aubrey was
Lorimer in the bills.) "Hush! hush!" said the
cornet, looking round. "There ain't no Lorimers
here. That's the stage. Perkeboyes is his name."
"But," said I, "Mr.Lorimer—" "I ain't Lorimer
neither," he said, a little pettishly. "Valvoni—
Signor Valvoni's my name." Wondering
at this curious difference in the case of those who
were brothers, I was yet restrained from further
inquiries by the manner of Signor Valvoni.

Before the night was over, it was settled that
my friend the cornet should arrange with his
brother: who was too sensitive, after his gross
treatment at the hands of the Delaval Family, to
endure any allusion to the subject from third
parties. He would communicate the result at a
pastrycook's some two streets away. He originally
proposed the assignation at a public-house;
but that I firmly declined.

Now it was that I missed the supporting aid
of honest John Plusher. The whole weight of
the negotiation was thrown upon my shoulders.
And yet the first thing necessary, I felt, was to
put myself entirely in his hands, far away as he
was. I was much pleased with the shape of this
sentiment, and got it by heart in bed, the next
night; though, indeed, I believe this putting
myself in his hands was but an inducement to his
putting something in my hands. Still he had
promised, and so I determined to appeal to him
in a manly way. Tliis expression also struck me
as being fine, and I got, it also by heart in bed.
The result of the whole was a letter composed
after many hours of agony (the procuring the
notepaper involving the sin of larceny), a strange
production, made up of many tottering capitals,
and suffering from caligraphic cramps and palsy:

"my dear john,—i hope you are quite well,
and I hope sister Jane is quite well also, i and
mama are very well too. i met a man who
heard of the dog—i wish you were here—to
put myself in your hands in a manly way—far
away as he was. please write.

"Ever your affectionate and friendly brother."

It struck me nothing could be more delicate,
or even elegant, than the way in which this was
put. I read it over several times, I read it to
my younger brother, who was lost in admiration,
and sucked his thumb with wonder. I
even—vanity getting the better of prudence—
read it privately to Mary the housemaid. She
kindly advanced me the sum of a penny on my
own personal security, to defray the postage.

By return, came a letter from honest John.
Such a letter! I had not miscalculated his
noble nature in putting myself so freely in his
hands, far away as he was. Nothing could be
nobler, grander, than his conduct. He said, leave
it all to him; he would manage it: and let
Perkeboyes, or Lorimer, put himself in direct
communication with him. He was up in town in about
a week. He kept the assignation at the pastrycook's;
in another fortnight, the renowned dog
Cæsar had retired from his dramatic career, and
become a member of our family.

I believe the Delaval Family must have been
in sad straits about this time, from the physical
condition of the frame of the noble animal. There
had been a conjoined indifference in the public
mind both to the family and the unrivalled animal.
However this might be, they were eager to part
with their dog. They parted with him for, I
believe, a not extravagant sum, the amount of
which the innate delicacy of honest John would
never let me know.

My mother naturally objected to receive the
noble dog into her family, but she was a tender
woman—is still, for I am glad to say she still
rules our mansion—and gave way. After his first
meal, consumed with a frightful greediness, the
result of many days' abstinence, he at once showed
a disposition to enter into the most cordial
relations. He gained rapidly on all the members
of the household. There was an honest bluntness,
a plain straightforward manner, about him, that
conciliated all. He kept his great mouth and red
tongue always on view, and panted habitually,
like a sort of canine steam-engine. He was so
large and great and stately: so reasonable, and
so quiet: that it was impossible to overlook him,
or consider him other than one of the regular
members of the family. He asserted himself
firmly, yet not obtrusively.

Strange to say, he could never be got to go
through any of his dramatic efforts: such as
ringing bells, or carrying flat candlesticks in his
mouth. Any approaches in this direction he
seemed to shun as though it were a discreditable
page in his life which he would willingly blot
out. His connexion with the Delaval Family he
would have the world forget; he showed his
sense of the indelicacy of any allusion to the
subject—which might take the shape of hanging
an imitation bell-cord before his nose, or trying
to encourage him to take up a flat candlestick
in his mouth—by raising himself slowly on his
feet, and walking slowly from the room.

But he had other fancies and accomplishments
which were very pleasant, and which, as being
of an unprofessional nature, he never had any
objection to exhibit. On being invited to