We stayed with the company two years
and a half in all, and played at every town
between York and London. During that
tima we had found leisure to improve. We
knew each other's weight and strength now
to a hair, and grew bolder witli experience;
so that there was scarcely a new feat brought
out anywhere which we did not learn, even
to the " perche " business, and the trick of
walking, head downwards, on a marble ceiling.
The fact is, that we were admirably
matched, which, in our profession, is the most
important point of all. Our height was the
same, to the sixteenth of an inch, and we
were not unlike in figure. If Griffiths
possessed a little more muscular strength, I was
the more active, and even that difference was
in our favour. I believe that, in other
respects, we suited each other equally well,
and I know that, for the three years and
a-half which we had spent together (counting
from our first meeting at Doncaster down to
the time when we dissolved partnership
with the circus folks) we had never had an
angry word. Griffiths was a steady, saving,
silent fellow enough, with little grey eyes,
and heavy black brows. I remember thinking,
once or twice, that he was not quite the
sort of person I would like for an enemy;
but that was in reference to no act of his, and
only a fancy of my own. For myself, I can
live with any one who is disposed to live
with me, and love peace and good-will better
than anything in the world.

We had now grown so expert, that we
resolved to better ourselves and return to
London, which we did somewhere about the
end of February or the beginning of March,
eighteen hundred and fifty-five. We put up
at a little inn in the Borough; and, before a
week was over, found ourselves engaged by
Mr. James Rice, of the Belvidere Tavern, at
a salary of seven pounds a-week. Now, this
was a great advance upon all our previous
gains; and the Tavern was by no means a
bad place for the founding of a theatrical
reputation.

Situated half-way between the West-end
and the City, surrounded by a densely-
populated neighbourhood, and lying in the very
path of the omnibuses, this establishment
was one of the most prosperous of its class.
There was a theatre, and a concert-room, and
a garden, where dancing, and smoking, and
rifle-shooting, and supper-eating was going on
from eight till twelve o'clock every night all
through the summer, which made the place a
special favourite with the working-classes.

Here, then we were engaged (Griffiths and
I), with a promise that our salary should be
raised if we proved attractive; and raised it
soon was, for we drew enormously. We
brought out the perche and the ceiling business;
came down in the midst of fireworks,
from a platform higher than the roof of the
theatre; and, in short, did everything that
ever yet was done in our line — ay, and did
it well too, though perhaps it is not my place
to say so. At all events, the great coloured
posters were pasted up all over the town;
and our salary was increased to fifteen pounds
a-week; and the gentleman who writes
about the plays in the Sunday Snub, was
pleased to observe that there was no performance
in London half so wonderful as that of
the Patagonian Brothers; for which I take
this opportunity to thank him kindly.

We lodged (of course together) in a quiet
street on a hill, near Islington. The house
was kept by Mrs. Morrison, a respectable,
industrious woman, whose husband had been
a gasfitter at one of the theatres, and who
was now left a widow with one only daughter
just nineteen years of age. She was very
good, and very pretty. She was christened
Alice, but her mother called her Ally, and
we soon fell into the same habit; for they
were very simple, friendly people, and we
were soon as good friends as if we had all
been living together in the same house for
years.

I am not a good hand at telling a story,
as, I dare say, you have found out by this
time, — and, indeed, I never did sit down to
write one out before, — so I may as well
come to the point at once, and confess that
I loved her. I also fancied, before many
months were over, that she did not altogether
dislike me; for a man's wits are
twice as sharp when he is in love, and there
is not a blush, or a glance, or a word, that
he does not contrive to build some hope
upon. So one day, when Griffiths was out,
I went down-stairs to the parlour, where she
was sitting by the window, sewing, and took
a chair beside her.

''Ally, my dear," said I, stopping her right
hand from working, and taking it up in
both of mine; " Ally, my dear, I want to
speak to you."

She blushed, and turned pale, and blushed
again, and I felt the pulses in her little soft
hand throbbing like the heart of a frightened
bird, but she never answered a syllable.

"Ally, my dear," said I, " I am a plain
man. I am thirty-two years of age. I don't
know how to flatter like some folks, and I
have had very little book-learning to speak
of. But, my dear, I love you; and though
I don't pretend that you are the first girl
I ever fancied, I can truly say that you
are the first I ever cared to make my wife.
So, if you'll take me, such as I am, I'll be
a true husband to you as long as I live."

What answer she made, or whether she
spoke at all, is more than I can undertake
to tell, for my ideas were all confused, and
I only remember that I kissed her, and felt
very happy, and that, when Mrs. Morrison
came into the room, she found me with my
arm clasped round my darling's waist.

I scarcely know when it was that I first
noticed the change in John Griffiths; but,
that it was somewhere about this time, I