" Pretty well for winter; I can't complain. We're toler-
ably full."

"Um, ah!" said Flitter; "mostly old ladies, I see; no
girls — give me girls !"

"And me, too, indeed," answered Mr. Lurker, "The
old ladies in a boarding-house are the deuce. Theyimake all
the rows. They get peppery and irritated, and talk at one
another, until they squabble openly. It happens. efery
evening." .7 ' ; ,i . ,

" Can't we get up a row to-night?" asked Philip, laughing,
"It would be amusing!" ..• •

" You need not trouble yourself— there is sure to be one,"
returned Mr. Lurker. "Miss Plummer usually quarreL
after tea with Sirs. Parker — that lady who sat at the bottom
of the table."

" What a comical lot of old seventy-fours you must have
in your harbour here," said Mr. Flitter; "anditalw&jsseemj
the case at Boulogne."



ttlE tOTtLETOS lEOACt. 295

"You know Boulogne, fheri, wel], sir?" asked a joungirf
gentleman, with an imperial.
' Ought to,*' said Mr. Flitter. " I li^ ed here once — or
iwice, I may say-i-perh'aps more.'

"Ah; I came over here yesterday, on purpose to buy a
diligence; and because the railway opened all the way to
Paris, there is not one in Boulogne.- I thought, at this very
time, to gut one cheap." . '

" What did you want one for?"

"To go to £psom in, next Derby-day," replied the gen -
Jeman, who was named Mr. Bpitrks. " I've got a fast-trot-
ting mare that I think would show off well in one.".
"A diligence is not the thing for. a fast-trptting mare,"
answered Mr. Flitter. " You've seen one, of course?"

"No, I haven't!" answered the other.
