Obdurate to this appeal, and mentally consigning Bob to a master whose
feet would be all the handsomer for boots, I threaded the stile and
escaped.

Towards evening I reached London. Who ever saw London for the first
time and was not disappointed? Those long suburbs melting indefinably
away into the capital forbid all surprise. The gradual is a great
disenchanter. I thought it prudent to take a hackney-coach, and so
jolted my way to the Hotel, the door of which was in a small street
out of the Strand, though the greater part of the building faced that
noisy thoroughfare. I found my father in a state of great discomfort
in a little room, which he paced up and down like a lion new caught
in his cage. My poor mother was full of complaints: for the first
time in her life, I found her indisputably crossish. It was an ill
time to relate my adventures.

I had enough to do to listen. They had all day been hunting for
lodgings in vain. My father's pocket had been picked of a new India
handkerchief. Primmins, who ought to know London so well, knew nothing
about it, and declared it was turned topsy-turvy, and all the streets
had changed names. The new silk umbrella, left for five minutes
unguarded in the hall, had been exchanged for an old gingham with three
holes in it.

It was not till my mother remembered that if she did not see herself
that my bed was well aired I should certainly lose the use of my limbs,
and therefore disappeared with Primmins and a pert chambermaid, who
seemed to think we gave more trouble than we were worth, that I told my
father of my new acquaintance with Mr. Trevanion.