think, and the more she thought the worse she felt. The chambermaid was
positive that if we hadn't come when we did the poor creature would have
gone mad. When the Boots appeared at the door to say there was a gent
and a bulldog downstairs enquiring after a baby, she flung her arms round
the man's neck and hugged him.

We just caught the train to Warwick, and by luck got back to the hotel
ten minutes before the mother turned up. Young Milberry carried the
child in his arms all the way. He said I could have the hamper for
myself, and gave me half-a-sovereign extra on the understanding that I
kept my mouth shut, which I did.

I don't think he ever told the child's mother what had
happened--leastways, if he wasn't a fool right through, he didn't.




THE PROBATION OF JAMES WRENCH.


"There are two sorts of men as gets hen-pecked," remarked Henry--I forgot
how the subject had originated, but we had been discussing the merits of
Henry VIII., considered as a father and a husband,--"the sort as likes it
and the sort as don't, and I wouldn't be too cocksure that the sort as
does isn't on the whole in the majority.

"You see," continued Henry argumentatively, "it gives, as it were, a kind
of interest to life which nowadays, with everything going smoothly, and
no chance of a row anywhere except in your own house, is apt to become a