to be of the right sort; and told the waiters there was no way of
humbugging him. All these attendants he knew by their Christian names,
and showed a great interest in their families; and as the London coaches
drove up, which in those early days used to set off from the George, Mr.
Foker flung the coffee-room window open, and called the guards and
coachmen by their Christian names, too, asking about their respective
families, and imitating with great liveliness and accuracy the tooting of
the horns as Jem the ostler whipped the horses' cloths off, and the
carriages drove gaily away.

"A bottle of sherry, a bottle of sham, a bottle of port and a shass
caffy, it ain't so bad, hay, Pen?" Foker said, and pronounced, after all
these delicacies and a quantity of nuts and fruit had been dispatched,
that it was time to "toddle." Pen sprang up with very bright eyes, and a
flushed face; and they moved off towards the theatre, where they paid
their money to the wheezy old lady slumbering in the money-taker's box.
"Mrs. Dropsicum, Bingley's mother-in-law, great in Lady Macbeth," Foker
said to his companion. Foker knew her, too.

They had almost their choice of places in the boxes of the theatre, which
was no better filled than country theatres usually are in spite of the
"universal burst of attraction and galvanic thrills of delight"
advertised by Bingley in the play-bills. A score or so of people dotted
the pit-benches, a few more kept a kicking and whistling in the
galleries, and a dozen others, who came in with free admissions, were in
the boxes where our young gentlemen sate. Lieutenants Rodgers and
Podgers, and young Cornet Tidmus, of the Dragoons, occupied a private
box. The performers acted to them, and these gentlemen seemed to hold
conversations with the players when not engaged in the dialogue, and
applauded them by name loudly.