I presume you mean Mr. Stafford and Mr. Stopford to pay Wilson (as I
have instructed him) a guinea each? Am I right? In that just case I
still owe you a guinea for _my_ part. I was going to send you a
post-office order for that amount, when a faint sense of absurdity
mantled my ingenuous visage with a blush, and I thought it better to owe
you the money until we met. I hope it may be soon!
I believe I may lay claim to the mysterious inkstand, also to a volume
lettered on the back, "Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea, II.," which I
left when I came down at Christmas. Will you take care of them as
hostages until we effect an exchange?
Charley went back in great spirits, threatening to write to George. It
was a very wet night, and John took him to the railway. He said, on his
return: "Mas'r Charles went off very gay, sir. He found some young
gen'lemen as was his friends in the train, sir." "Come," said I, "I am
glad of that. How many were there? Two or three?" "Oh dear, sir, there
was a matter of forty, sir! All with their heads out o' the
coach-windows, sir, a-hallooing 'Dickens!' all over the station!"
Her ladyship and the ward of the FIZ-ZISH-UN send their best loves, in
which I heartily join. If you and your dear husband come to town before
we bring out Bulwer's comedy, I think we must have a snug reading of it.
Ever, dear Mrs. Watson, faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Mr. Mark Lemon.]