absence to look up his wife and family, who would only be too happy to do all in their power for my entertainment; and then left me, helpless and aghast, before this heap of papers. Poor Bubbleby! He evidently was one of those who cherish exaggerated ideas of the power of the Press. We who move its levers know that it is a mighty engine; but when it comes to patent self-acting brakes and inventions connected with the permanent-way, the advertisement department of this great power would seem to be the proper handle to lay hold of. Still, here was a man of inventive genius, wistful of aspect, pale as Palissy, thin as Jacquard, and earnest as Hargreaves, who, by the accident of his living in India, had missed the rich rewards that fall to the lot of such mean as Fairbairn and Bessemer. Decidedly he must be dragged from his unmerited obscurity and held up to the admiration he deserved.
It was natural that he should turn from uncongenial people who could not sympathise with his pursuits to a representative of Literature. His confidences did me honour, but I confess I was somewhat embarrassed by them; and I found when left alone before the patent brake and the rest of the puzzling models, that I remembered very little of what the enthusiastic inventor had said, and when I turned to my note-book my observations were so merely interjectional as to be useless. But Clara Bubbleby's eyes I recalled with photographic accuracy; while a certain piquant turn of her nose and a pretty pecularity in its chiselling where it joined the short upper lip, and the full red lips themselves, were all much more distinct to my mind's eye than Exhibitions full of models. As I rolled up my sheaf of plans and went to breakfast, I thought that my chief would admit, if he could see me, that I was doing my duty by the paper.
In the afternoon I called on the Bubblebys, and was cordially welcomed to tea. A stalwart young gentleman connected with cotton machinery, who spoke with a strong Lancashire accent, did not seem to be pleased with the attentions I paid to Miss Clara; nor was the young lady herself in a comfortable frame of mind. Miss Bubbleby smiled on him with her acid aspect, and turned to me all honey. As acting it was admirable, but the rapidity of the change was more surprising than pleasant. I was evidently in the Lancashire man's way; and we were all relieved when he sulkily departed, and a
