Page:The Ladies' Cabinet of Fashion, Music & Romance 1832.pdf/44

 

So Miss Cross and the tinman went the next afternoon ; and, I believe, that with all the importance they assumed or felt, as members of the auxiliary, there was a little hesitation in their entrance into the demesne of Mrs. Wilkins. At any rate, I know, that in mounting the three steps before the door, Miss Cross, by a twitch of her foot, either nervous or accidental, kicked her colleague, who was behind her, on his back, or some other part ; and set him a rolling with such emphasis, that he found it troublesome to stand up again fairly ; or, indeed, to know the four points of the compass. Mr. Tompkins was playing backgammon with his Danish friend, when his wife opened the door suddenly, with her face flushed, and said " My dear, here are a lady and gentleman, who wish to inquire into the causes of our poverty, and the means of relieving it." She laughed as she spoke, but as she turned away and went up stairs, cried hysterically. Mr. Tompkins , who had a man taken up, as the phrase is, and had just thrown doublets of the very point in which he could not enter, rose, and issued forth to talk to the sub-committee. I believe, most devoutly, that he was an amiable man ; and as to the vulgar practice of profane swearing, I do not think he ever had indulged in it before in his life. But when he discharged this sub-committee, I am credibly informed, that he availed himself of as round and overwhelming a volley of blasphemy as ever was heard on board a man-of-war. I hope it has been pardoned him, among his other transgressions. Time rolled on, and five years had passed away since the arrival of Mr. Tompkins and his wife atCuriosity as to them had become superstition ; though the vulgar imaginations of the mechanical bourgeois of the village had not enabled them to conjure up any spirit or demon, by whose assistance this inoffensive couple were enabled to exist without getting into debt. No letters had come, during all this period, through the hands of the conscientious and intelligent post-master. No deposits had been made by Mr. Tompkins in any one of the four banks ; nor, to the best of my knowledge and belief, had he ever seen the inside of either of them ; for he never went to a place where he had no business to transact, or was not required by courtesy to go . Death !-which we must all expect, and meet as we can→→ Death came, and makes tragical the end of a narrative which I have written, perhaps, in a strain of too much levity. A fever, occasioned probably by local influence, seized Mrs. Tompkins,

and after a few days' illness, unexpectedly even to the doctor,