146 POSTHUxMOTTS PAIERS OF
- ' * No, no,' returned the widow, hastily.
'* * And don't run out, and blow him up/ said Tom, * because I'll do all that for you ; you had better not exert yourself.'
" * Well, well/ said the widow, * let me see it.'
" * I will/ replied Tom Smart; and, with these words, he placed the,; letter in the widow's hand.
<* Gentlemen, I have heard my uncle say, that Tom Smart said, the widow's lamentations when she heard the disclosure would have pierced a heart of stone. Tom was certainly very tender-hearteeil, but they pierced his, to the very core. The widow rocked herself to and fro, and wrung- her hands.
" ' Oh, the deception and villainy of the man ! ' said the widow.
<i i Frightful, my dear Ma'am; but compose yourself,' said Tom Smart.
" * Oh, I can't compose myself/ shrieked the widow. * I shall never find any one else I can love so much ! *
" ' Oh yes you will, my dear soul,' said Tom Smart, letting fall a shower of -the largest-sized tears, in pity for the widow's misfortunes. Tom Smart, in the energy of his compassion, had put his arm round the widow's waist ; and the widow, in a passion of grief, had clasped Tom's hand. She looked up in Tom's face, and smiled through her tears. Tom looked down in her's, and smiled through his.
I never could find out, gentlemen, whether Tom did or did not kiss the widow at that particular moment. He used to tell my uncle he didn't, but I have my doubts about it. Between ourselves, gentlemen, I rather think he did.
" At all events, Tom kicked the very tall man out at the front door half an hour after, and married the widow a month after. And he used to drive about the country, with the clay-coloured gig with the red wheels, and the vixenish mare with the fast pace, till he gave up busi- ness many years afterwards, and went to France with his wife ; and then the old house was pulled down."
" Will you allow me to ask you," said the inquisitive old gentleman^ " what became of the chair ? "
" Why," replied the one-eyed bagman, it was observed to creak very much on the day of the wedding ; but Tom Smart couldn't say for certain, whether it was with pleasure or bodily infirmity. He rather thought it was the latter, though, for it never spoke afterwards."
" Everybody believed the story, didn't they ? " said the dirty-faced man, re-filhng his pipe.
" Except Tom's enemies," replied the bagman. " Some of 'em said Tom invented it altogether; and others said he was drunk, and fancied it, and got hold of the wrong trousers by mistake before he went to bed. But nobody ever minded what they said."
- ' Tom Smart said it was all true ? "
" Every word."
- ' And your uncle ? "
" Every letter."
" They must have been nice men, both of 'em;" said the dirty-feced man.
- ' Yes, they were," replied the bagman; '< very nice men indeed I"
