sorely against her will. What does your blockhead father when he and Mrs
Rudge have laid their heads together, but goes there when he ought to be
abed, makes interest with his friend the doorkeeper, slips him on a mask
and domino, and mixes with the masquers.'

'And like himself to do so!' cried the girl, putting her fair arm round
his neck, and giving him a most enthusiastic kiss.

'Like himself!' repeated Gabriel, affecting to grumble, but evidently
delighted with the part he had taken, and with her praise. 'Very like
himself--so your mother said. However, he mingled with the crowd,
and prettily worried and badgered he was, I warrant you, with people
squeaking, "Don't you know me?" and "I've found you out," and all that
kind of nonsense in his ears. He might have wandered on till now, but
in a little room there was a young lady who had taken off her mask, on
account of the place being very warm, and was sitting there alone.'

'And that was she?' said his daughter hastily.

'And that was she,' replied the locksmith; 'and I no sooner whispered to
her what the matter was--as softly, Doll, and with nearly as much art as
you could have used yourself--than she gives a kind of scream and faints
away.'

'What did you do--what happened next?' asked his daughter. 'Why, the
masks came flocking round, with a general noise and hubbub, and I
thought myself in luck to get clear off, that's all,' rejoined the
locksmith. 'What happened when I reached home you may guess, if you
didn't hear it. Ah! Well, it's a poor heart that never rejoices.--Put
Toby this way, my dear.'