"At any rate," says my Lord, "Titmarsh here has got a place throughour friend's unhappy attachment; and Mrs.Titmarsh has only laughed at him, so there is no harm there.It's an ill wind that blows nobody good, you know.""Such a wind as that, my Lord, with due respect to you, shall never do good to me.I have learned in the past few years what it is to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness; and that out of such friendship no good comes in the end to honest men.It shall never be said that Sam Titmarsh got a place because a great man was in love with his wife; and were the situation ten times as valuable, I should blush every day I entered the office-doors in thinking of the base means by which my fortune was made.You have made me free, my Lord; and, thank God! I am willing to work.I can easily get a clerkship with the assistance of my friends; and with that and my wife's income, we can manage honestly to face the world."This rather long speech I made with some animation; for, look you, I was not over well pleased that his Lordship should think me capable of speculating in any way on my wife's beauty.
My Lord at first turned red, and looked rather angry; but at last he held out his hand and said, "You are right, Titmarsh, and I am wrong; and let me tell you in confidence, that I think you are a very honest fellow.You shan't lose by your honesty, I promise you."Nor did I: for I am at this present moment Lord Tiptoff's steward and right-hand man: and am I not a happy father? and is not my wife loved and respected by all the country? and is not Gus Hoskins my brother-in- law, partner with his excellent father in the leather way, and the delight of all his nephews and nieces for his tricks and fun?
As for Mr.Brough, that gentleman's history would fill a volume of itself.Since he vanished from the London world, he has become celebrated on the Continent, where he has acted a thousand parts, and met all sorts of changes of high and low fortune.One thing we may at least admire in the man, and that is, his undaunted courage; and I can't help thinking, as I have said before, that there must be some good in him, seeing the way in which his family are faithful to him.With respect to Roundhand, I had best also speak tenderly.The case of Roundhand v.
Tidd is still in the memory of the public; nor can I ever understand how Bill Tidd, so poetic as he was, could ever take on with such a fat, odious, vulgar woman as Mrs.R., who was old enough to be his mother.
