The String of Pearls (1850), p. 509

far as to fix their wedding day, and how he should not feel at all happy unless both she and Mark Ingestrie were at the ceremony.
"Indeed, he hoped," he said, "that they might give the parson only one trouble, by being married upon the same occasion."
Johanna warded this last part of the colonel's speech; but she was fervent in her hopes that he and Arabella would be so very happy, and in her praises of her young friend ; so in very pleasant discourse indeed, they reached the old spectacle-makers shop, and then the colonel shook hands with Johanna, and bade her a kind and friendly adieu, and she was let in by—to her immense surprise—her mother!
Mrs. Oakley fell upon Johanna's neck in a passion of tears, crying—f< Come, my child—come to your mother's heart, and tell her that you for-
give her for much past neglect and unkindness."

" Oh, mother," said Johanna, u do not speak so. There is nothing to for-
give ; and if you are happy and we are all good friends, we will never think of
the past.

u That's right, my dear/' said Mr. Oakley, from the passage; u that's right,
ray love. Come in f both of you. But it is necessary that we should briefly
state how it was that this wonderful change in the behaviour of Mrs, Oakley
came about, and for that purpose we must retrace our steps a little.

The reader will be so good as to recollect that the la^t time Mrs. Oakley was
introduced to his notice she was encumbered by Mr. Lupin, and had the pleasure
of introducing that gentleman to the notice of Big Ben the beef-eater, who had
quickly put all idea of escape out of the question, ^s regarded that highly reli-
gious personage.

At that point the presence of other events compelled us to leave the lady,
and nepair to Todd's shop, and to Mrs. Lovetfc's little concern in Bell Yard.

The appearance of Lupin's face when he found that he was in the grasp of
Big Ben, would have been quite a study for a painter. It transcended all de-
scription, and for the moment seemed as if he were bidding farewell to this world
and to all his iniquities in it, without the intervention of the law. But in a
few moments he recovered from this condition, and sliding on to his knees, and
in a whining tone, he cried —

" Mercy, Mercy ! Oh, let me go V

€i At the end of a rope," said Big Ben. " Easy does it* What has he been and
done, Mrs. O. t"
" Murder, murder !"

A cro wd of people soon began to collect around them, and then Lupin made
an effort to thrust himself out of the gra«p of Big Ben, but the only result of the
effort was very nearly to strangle himself.

u You are killing the man, you great brute V cried a woman. "You are
throttling the poor man."

" He will be murdered," shouted another female. *• Oh, you great wretch,
do you want to take his life ?"

" Listen to me," said Mrs. Oakley. " He has murdered his poor wift, and
that is the reason I have asked that he should be held tijjht."

11 Murdered his wife J" exclaimed about twelve females in chorus. " Murdered
his wife t Then hanging is a great deal too good for him* Hold him tight,
sir, do. Oh, the wretch !"

The tide of popular feeling fairly turned against Mr. Lupin, and Big Ben had
as much difficulty now in preserving the half dead wretch from popular fury as
if he had been accused of any other crime, he might have had to prevent popular
sympathy from aiding his escape.

u Oh!" cried one lady, of rather extensive proportions, who was the wife of a
baker, u I should like to have him in a brisk oven for an hour and a half."

"And I," said the lady of a butcher, " would see him slaughtered without
so much as winking at him."

" And serve him right, the wagabone !" cried Big Ben. u Come along, will