About seven o'clock
_ that _ would be a stroke ! How Tabby could endear herself to him ! What a number of things Mrs. Tag-rag could do to make him comfortable ! About seven o'clock Tag-rag quitted his premises in Oxford Street , for his country house ; and , occupied with these and similar delightful and anxious thoughts and speculations , hurried along Oxford Street on his way to the Clapham stage , without thinking of his umbrella , though it rained fast . When he had taken his place on the coach-box , beside old Crack , -LRB- as he had done almost every night for years , -RRB- he was so unusually silent that Crack naturally thought his best passenger was going to become bankrupt , or compound with his creditors , or do something in that line , shortly . Mr. Tag-rag could hardly keep his temper at the slow pace old Crack was driving at -- just when Mr. Tag-rag would have wished to gallop the whole way . Never had he descended with so much briskness , as when the coach at length drew up before the little green gate , which opened on the tidy little gravel walk , which led up to the little green wooden porch , which sheltered the little door which admitted you into little Satin Lodge .