him,--a sight so touching to the chambermaids who are peeping through the
door, that one of them calls out, "It's a shame to part 'em!" But this
chambermaid was always, as Boots informs me, a soft-hearted one. Not
that there was any harm in that girl. Far from it.

Finally, Boots says, that's all about it. Mr. Walmers drove away in the
chaise, having hold of Master Harry's hand. The elderly lady and Mrs.
Harry Walmers, Junior, that was never to be (she married a Captain long
afterwards, and died in India), went off next day. In conclusion, Boots
put it to me whether I hold with him in two opinions: firstly, that there
are not many couples on their way to be married who are half as innocent
of guile as those two children; secondly, that it would be a jolly good
thing for a great many couples on their way to be married, if they could
only be stopped in time, and brought back separately.




THIRD BRANCH--THE BILL


I had been snowed up a whole week. The time had hung so lightly on my
hands, that I should have been in great doubt of the fact but for a piece
of documentary evidence that lay upon my table.

The road had been dug out of the snow on the previous day, and the
document in question was my bill. It testified emphatically to my having
eaten and drunk, and warmed myself, and slept among the sheltering
branches of the Holly-Tree, seven days and nights.