"Tom

"And you would have lost," said Mr. Fearn, triumphantly, Fearn got his ticket for less than nothing, and it came up one of the two great capitals. I went with him when Bish's people gave him a check for thirty-thousand pounds! and he sent a twenty-pound note to be distributed amongst the clerks."

"Astonishing!" was echoed round the table; " Astonishing!" came also from the side-board, and Betty retreated into the kitchen; the ladies and myself into my own apartment up-stairs.

Glad was I when, at half-past one in the morning, the uninteresting guests of mine host departed, and I had quiet possession of my rooms again. All was neat and in perfect order in my little front room, when I went into it from my back one to breakfast. Mr. Stevens was gone to London as usual, on his money-seeking, money-making errand, and every thing seemed as if we had had no revelling there the night previous, thanks to the indefatigable exertions of the clever housekeeper, who, as she came in to take away my breakfast things, asked me with much respect, yet extreme anxiety, "if I could at all interpret dreams?"

"No, indeed," said I, "or I should have enough to do with my own; I have had, I believe, a thousand since I fell asleep, this morning at two o'clock; but they were principally owing I believe to the pigeon pie which I was stupid enough to eat of, for the second time at supper.One of my dreams was, that I had swallowed nine pigeons alive, as fast as they could fly one after another into my mouth !"

"And do not you mean ma'am to try your luck after such a communication as that?" demanded Betty, sweeping up the crumbs from the carpet, and very reluctant to leave the room.

"Communication! Betty?" enquired I, "from whom, and about

what?"

"As for, from whom the communication may have come, ma'am," answered the ruddy-faced housekeeper looking me full in my face," it is not for me to say-the parson could tell you better than I could; but I am sure I know as well as he could tell me, what it is about."

"Indeed!" cried I, a little amused," I shall like to be made acquainted with it"

Why, what should it be about ma'am, but the lottery?" said Betty, "I mean to have a trial if I live, and master will give me my moneybut he never thinks much of lotteries, and if he should refuse, I shall almost break my heart."

"I hope you do not mean to speculate largely, my good creature?" said I, "if you have saved a little sum, keep it for your old age, and run no risks."

My money is as safe in the hands of master, as if I had put it into the Bank, and he gives me good and lawful interest for it; I wish he had a great deal more of it belonging to me, than my poor thirty pounds.-I think they said, ma'am, yesterday, the gentlemen at dinner, that you can get a whole ticket for that sum. I am determined after the dream I have had, to spend every shilling of my savings, and buy the number I have dreamt of; that is if it is not sold."

"Do not be so foolish, Mrs. Betty," argued I, "If you are resolved to try your luck, purchase only a sixteenth."

"No, ma'am, in for a penny in for a pound; the only fear I have is that master wont advance the money for such a purpose: and so he will be the ruin of me."

"If he is your friend, Betty, as I am sure he is, he will not; why I might as well go into town now, and try to hunt up the number nine, because I dreamed of the pigeons."

"No, ma'am," said the rubicund Mrs. Betty, "you are very near the mark though, but nine is not the number that will gain the 30,0001. ;” and she spoke so confidently that I was much amused.

"And yet," said I," they all said, you knew, yesterday that nine was a fortunate number."

"And so it will prove," said Betty," or I should not have been told so plainly of it last night. You are a lady, ma'am, I'm sure, and would scorn to take advantage of a poor servant, to go into town, and buy my number over my head, as I might say; therefore if you will not be displeased, I will tell you all about my dream."

"You had better be cautious, Betty," said I, smiling, "for 30,000/. most people would do a great many dishohourable things." "I have no fear of you," replied the housekeeper, my heart; that is, if I am not troublesome."

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so I must ease

"Go on then, Betty," said I; "but give me first my netting-box and footstool-now ease your mind."

"I dreamed," said the housekeeper, "that master came home very wet and hungry; that he asked me what I had provided for his dinner? when I told him that I would fry him some new laid eggs in a few minutes, for that we had no meat in the house," and she stopped.

"Go on," said I, "there is nothing very remarkable as yet." "How many can you eat, Sir?" said I, "for I do not like to fry more than will be eaten; for I have had my dinner."

"That is just like you, Betty," I observed; "your master has quite a treasure in his servant."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Betty, dropping a curtsey. "Eat!' said my master, I am never satisfied with eggs!-you may fry me, Betty, just nine of them.'

"So I went out and took the frying-pan, and broke just nine eggs, and I was most particular in counting them; and, as I hung the fryingpan up again, against the wall, something seemed to say to me, that with its long handle and round pan, it looked just like the figure of nine; and

so indeed it does."

"Well, ma'am, I pondered on my dream, and made up my mind, from what I heard yesterday, that I would try my luck in the number 99, as shewn to me by the eggs and the frying-pan; but since I have come into your room, and heard what you have dreamed and told me of, about the nine pigeons flying into your mouth, I am determined, even if I pawn every rag I have, to go to London to-morrow, and secure the whole ticket of the three nines, or 999-but some one has knocked three times, and I must run down to the door."

Let not the mighty of this land turn away with disdain from this simple story, of which I boldly avow that Mrs. Betty, the comely housekeeper of Mr. George Stevens, stockbroker, of Peckham Rye, is to be the decided heroine. It is all very well to hear sometimes of mar

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chioness and countesses, but why should we not be made acquainted with what passes in the abodes of merchants and shopkeepers, of the loves and fortunes of culinary nymphs, and those whose province it is to sweep the cobwebs from the state ?" Many a romance could be gathered from the adventures of nursery-maids and Abigails; and I do assert, that the true history I am now writing, respecting Mrs. Betty Martin, aforesaid, has a prescriptive right to be so entitled.

With much alacrity and good humour were all the manifold household duties performed in the quiet domicile of Mr. George Stevens that day. My little repast, at two o'clock, was neatly put upon my table, and most officiously was I waited on, for Mrs. Betty was "still harping" on her dream, and the chances of the lottery. "If you would but stand my friend, ma'am," urged the infatuated creature, "and would persuade master to let me have my own money; I am sure of it, I shall get the capital prize."

"Indeed, Mrs. Betty," said I," it would go against my conscience to persuade Mr. Stevens to do this to the amount you intend. Buy, as I said before, a small share, since you have such a fancy for this favorite number, but do not lay out all your little savings."

"In for a penny in for a pound, is my maxim, ma'am. I should be sorry to be disrespectful to master; but my money is my own, and I have worked for it. I am resolved; so if you would be pleased just to be present when I speak to him, by-and-bye, I shall be much obliged to you. I never, you know, make free with master, so I shall feel a little queerish when I begin.”

"How shall we manage then, Mrs. Betty?" said I, seeing her determination; "I cannot go down into your Master's parlour on purpose."

"But he can come up to you, ma'am, if you will please to let me deliver a message to him, when he comes home; that is, after he has dined, that you wish to speak to him; you are such a great favourite of his, I assure you, that he will be ready to break his neck, in his hurry to run up the stairs."

I could not help smiling at this double stroke of policy on the part of the apparently simple-minded housekeeper. By my sending to him on this business she would gain the benefit of making her master think that I fully approved of her intended speculation; then, on the other hand, she had endeavoured to awaken my woman's vanity within me, by seeking to convince me that I was an immense favourite with her bachelor master, to her as high and great, I have said, as a Cæsar or an Alexander, and thus putting it into my head, if I had not conceived the thought before, that, with proper tact and encouragement, I might be able to turn this prepossession so much to my own advantage, as to become in due and proper time, no less a personage than Mrs. George Stevens, and the legitimate owner of his vine-covered cottage, and all the bright and burnished movables within it.

As Mrs. Betty was at present situated, this move of hers on the check-board of life, must appear either most disinterested or most foolish. To have a mistress put over her head-one should think the bare idea must have been most unpalatable to her, when she had things now so much her own way; but, as I took some pains to sift this seeming extra

ordinary conduct of her's to the bottom, I will, in two words, explain the mystery.

Mrs. Betty Martin was not of an ambitious character, and moreover was as pure-minded a creature as ever breathed. Never had she, I am sure, once contemplated the notion, that the rich bachelor, Mr. George Stevens, "a gentleman every inch of him," could think of marrying so ignorant and inferior a being as herself. It was totally out of the sphere of her thoughts; she would as soon of thought of contemplating wedlock with 66 some bright particular star." Thus I could not disturb any fine woven schemes of hers, by inviting her master up stairs, into my room. This was one of the supporters of her little plan; the other (it was but a biped) I soon made myself the mistress of an inch of thread tied round a swan-shot, would have been plummet and line enough, to sound the depths and shallows of poor Betty's mind: in fact every pebble could be plainly seen lying at the bottom of it, so clear and pellucid were its waters. Much affection did I bear thee, kind and simple creature! and much hast thou been thrown within my path!

Well, the other leg on which her fancy walked, was this:—she cared much for her master's comforts, knew somewhat of her own value, and as she felt certain of getting one of the 30,000l. prizes, if she could but put herself into a Peckham coach, and search for the ticket 999, why, with such a fortune, she could no longer submit to perform those offices in his domicile, hitherto so cheerfully and thoroughly executed. He would lose his housekeeper, and thus miss her services. What could she do better than provide him with a wife, before she left, who might hire what servants she chose to do the work, and of course would administer largely, she thought, to his comforts. What a pity it is that we cannot as easily unravel all the stratagems and plots of political men, for the good, as they would make us believe, of their king and country, as I could unwind this little, innocent scheme of Mrs. Betty!

us.

Up came Mr. George Stevens, puffing and blowing, as his housekeeper had predicted, when she had given him the invitation agreed upon between I could not resist a smile, as I perceived how he had, as they say, adonized his little, round, plump figure, to do me honour; he had mounted a gold chain, twisted secundum artem, through the fourth button of his new black silk waistcoat. His stock was a quite new one, and was fastened down with a diamoned pin, which I verily believe he had not long before purchased; and I plainly enough (too plainly it seemed to me) perceived that he was scented with that, to me, vile odour, bergamot. It wanted not a lynx's eye to discern that Mr. George Stevens actually meant to propose himself to the Monthly Nurse.

There are some situations which are, or become, ridiculous—one cannot tell why, this was one of them; and it amused me much to observe the little stockbroker, armed at all points for conquest, and evidently imagining that I met his advances full half way. Unconsciously I gave him, by this pleased appearance of mine, fresh grounds for self-delusion, and I was, without knowing it, acting the part of a veteran coquette.

"You have done me the honour of inviting me up to tea with you," began the self satisfied, but still rather awkward Mr. George Stevens; "I am most proud indeed; I much wished to—”

"There has been a little mistake, I believe," said I, breaking in upon

his well constructed speech; " Mrs. Betty can explain"-but Mrs. Betty had left the room.

"How provoking," thought I, biting my lip, "Why, what can the man think, but that I am as ready as he seems to be! I cannot suffer this to go any further," and I rang the bell with some impatience of manner. Mr. Stevens looked puzzled, and began to pick the dry leaves off some geraniums that stood in a basket near the window. Mrs. Betty came in with a face as ned as a peony.

"You want to ask your master a favor," said I, walking to the other window," and you requested my presence whilst you did it; now is your time, Mrs. Betty, as I am going out, almost immediately, for a walk. My cough is so much better, sir," said I, turning to the discomfited stockbroker," with your fine air at Peckham, that I think I shall be able to return to London in the course of another week."

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"I hope not," said Mr. Stevens, very mournfully, but with so absurd an accent, that I could hardly contain myself. Surely," thought I," he will not declare himself in the presence of his servant!" But I wronged him: he had too much delicacy, I found, for that; for he turned round sharply to his unoffending domestic, and asked her, " What the devil she wanted with him that she could not say to him down stairs."

Mrs. Betty looked distressed, humiliated; yet I saw she was determined. "I want, sir, if you please, my money you were kind enough to say you would keep for me, and give me interest for, my thirty pounds you have in your possession; and I want it, sir, if you please, this evening."

A dreadful hurricane was coming on, I saw, by most portentous signs in the horizon, &c. of Mr. Stevens' countenance; a short pause preceded it-there is always one before any great event. Out it at length thundered; and it seemed to ease the gentleman very much. "What does the woman mean by asking for her money in such a way as this-and before you, my dear madam? Does she mean to intimate that I want to keep her little bit of trumpery saving from her? I, that have twice as many thousands as she has pounds!"

This was a hint intended for me. What a sublime chance had I now to better my condition, as people say! as good as having both the thirtythousand pound prizes to my own share; only that there must be a little, round unit, or rather cypher, attached to them, which, instead of increasing their value in my eyes, made them, to me, wholly unacceptable.

Mrs. Betty took up the corner of her clean, white-holland apron, and applied it to her eyes; but she stood in the presence of a heart of rock, at least as far as she was concerned.

"Did I ever ask you to take care of your thirty pounds ?" demanded he, vehemently. "Are you afraid you should lose your money?"

"She has no fears whatever in that quarter," interrupted I, pitying poor Betty's situation," she only wants her money, I believe, to try her chance in the Lottery; and she was afraid you would disapprove of her risking it.'

"Whew!" exclaimed the elegant Mr. Stevens," and she thought quite right then. Do you, madam, approve of such a step?" and I saw I had lost 50 per cent. in his estimation, only by the supposition.

"Indeed, Mr. Stevens, I do not," I returned, "but Mrs. Betty will listen to no arguments against her strong desire: she is, as she says, resolved to try her luck."