"I little thought what an important master of the ceremonies I was
when I first gave your present wife an introduction to your mother.
Bear me in your mind then as the unconscious instrument of your having
given your best affection to a worthy object, and I shall be the best
paid master of the ceremonies since Nash drove his coach and six
through the streets of Bath.

"Faithfully yours,

"CHARLES DICKENS."

* * * * *

Among a heap of others I find a note of invitation written on the 9th
of July, 1867, in which he says: "My 'readings' secretary, whom I am
despatching to America at the end of this week, will dine with me at
Verey's in Regent Street at six exact to be wished God-speed. There
will only be besides, Wills, Wilkie Collins, and Mr. Arthur Chappell.
Will you come? No dress. Evening left quite free."

I went, and the God-speed party was a very pleasant one. But I liked
best to have him, as I frequently had, all to myself. I suppose I
am not, as Johnson said, a "clubbable" man. At all events I highly
appreciate what the Irishman called a tatur-tatur dinner, whether the
gender in the case be masculine or feminine; and I incline to give
my adherence to the philosophy of the axiom that declares "two to
be company, and three none." But then I am very deaf, and that has
doubtless much to do with it.

On the 10th of September, 1868, Dickens writes:--