The young fellow whom they call John
was in the yard, sitting on a barrel and smoking a cheroot, the fumes of
which came in, not ungrateful, through the open window. The divinity-
student disappeared in the midst of our talk. The poor relation in black
bombazine, who looked and moved as if all her articulations were elbow-
joints, had gone off to her chamber, after waiting with a look of soul-
subduing decorum at the foot of the stairs until one of the male sort had
passed her and ascended into the upper regions. This is a famous point of
etiquette in our boarding-house; in fact, between ourselves, they make
such an awful fuss about it, that I, for one, had a great deal rather have
them simple enough not to think of such matters at all. Our land-lady's
daughter said, the other evening, that she was going to "retire"; where-
upon the young fellow called John took up a lamp and insisted on lighting
her to the foot of the staircase. Nothing would induce her to pass by him,
until the schoolmistress, saying in good plain English that it was her
bed-time, walked straight by them both, not seeming to trouble herself
about either of them.
I have been led away from what I meant the portion included in these
brackets to inform my readers about. I say, then, most of the boarders had
left the table about the time when I began telling some of these secrets
of mine, all of them, in fact, but the old gentleman opposite and the
schoolmistress.
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