of a laundress, in whose house he had lodged thirty years ago,
when new to London but already long-acquainted with hunger; they
lived in complete harmony, but Mrs Hinks, who was four years the
elder, still spoke the laundress tongue, unmitigated and
immitigable. Another pair were Mr and Mrs Gorbutt. In this case
there were no narrow circumstances to contend with, for the wife,
originally a nursemaid, not long after her marriage inherited
house property from a relative. Mr Gorbutt deemed himself a poet;
since his accession to an income he had published, at his own
expense, a yearly volume of verses; the only result being to keep
alive rancour in his wife, who was both parsimonious and vain.
Making no secret of it, Mrs Gorbutt rued the day on which she had
wedded a man of letters, when by waiting so short a time she
would have been enabled to aim at a prosperous tradesman, who
kept his gig and had everything handsome about him. Mrs Yule
suspected, not without reason, that this lady had an inclination
to strong liquors. Thirdly came Mr and Mrs Christopherson, who
were poor as church mice. Even in a friend's house they wrangled
incessantly, and made tragi-comical revelations of their home
life. The husband worked casually at irresponsible journalism,
but his chosen study was metaphysics; for many years he had had a
huge and profound book on hand, which he believed would bring him
fame, though he was not so unsettled in mind as to hope for
anything else. When an article or two had earned enough money for
immediate necessities he went off to the British Museum, and then
the difficulty was to recall him to profitable exertions. Yet
husband and wife had an affection for each other. Mrs
Christopherson came from Camberwell, where her father, once upon
a time, was the smallest of small butchers. Disagreeable stories
were whispered concerning her earlier life, and probably the