through Jaggers a message from Miss Havisham, requesting to see him; he suspect Jaggers's housekeeper to be Estella's mother, and questions Wemmick in regard to her story.-XLIX. Pip goes down again to Miss Havisham's, and receives from her the assistance he had asked for Herbert; he confirms his belief that Molly is the mother of Estella; Pip walks round the place before leaving, and, returning to Miss Havisham's room, sees her clothes in flames, and rescues her. - L. Pip learns from Herbert that portion of Provis's history relating to some trouble he had had with a woman, and knows from the facts that the convict is Estella's father.-LI. Pip informs Jaggers of his discovery of Estella's parentage; 'Jaggers and Wemmick discover something unprofessional in each other's character. LII. Pip receives notice from Wemmick that the attempt to get Irovis off may safely be made, and arranges accordingly; he also receives a singular letter, requesting his presence by night at the lime-kiln on the old marshes. - LIII. Obeying this cail, he goes to the place designated, where he is set upon and bound by old Orlick, who is about to kill him, when he is rescued by Herbert and Startop; how Herbert came to rescue Pip.- LIV. Pip, Herbert, and Startop take Provis down the river in order to get him aboard a foreign steamer; as they are about to accomplish this purpose, another boat joins them, and they are summoned to surrender Magwitch; as the two boats lie side by side, Magwitch grasps Compeyson, who is in the officer's boat; they are run down by the approaching steamer, Compeyson drowned, and Magwitch severely injured. -LV. Herbert leaves London to take charge of a branch house of his business in Cairo; Wemmick's regret at the sacrifice of Magwitch's "portable property; " marriage of Wemmick and Miss Skiffins. - LVI. Trial and conviction of Magwitch; he gradually Binks under the injuries he had received, and is tenderly nursed by Pip until his death. LVII. Delirious illness of Pip, from which he recovers to find Joe at his bedside; Joc informs him of Miss Havisham's death and the conditions of her will; Pip recovers his strength, and Joe leaves him. LVIII. Pip resolves to return to the forge and to offer himself to Biddy; Pumblechook puts in his claim to be the founder of Pip's fortune, for the last time; Pip goes to the forge in search of Biddy and Joe, and finds them celebrating their wedding-day; Pip joins Herbert, and remains abroad eleven years, at the end of which time he revisits Satis House, where he meets Estella, who is now a widow, and from whom he sees no shadow of another parting."

Somebody's Luggage.

[PUBLISHED IN "ALL THE YEAR ROUND," DECEMBER, 1862.]

The

THE Christmas-tale published under this name contains an amusing description, given by a head waiter named Christopher, of the struggles, trials, and experiences of the class to which he belongs, and also an account of his purchasing a quantity of luggage left more than six years previously in Room 24 B by a strange gentleman who had suddenly departed without settling his bill, which amounted to £2 168. 6d. Christopher pays Somebody's bill, and takes possession of Somebody's luggage, consisting of a black portmanteau, a black bag, a desk, a dressing-case, a brown-paper parcel, a hat-box, and an umbrella strapped to a walking-stick. These articles are in great part filled with manuscripts. "There was writing in his dressing-case, writing in his boots, writing among his shavingtackle, writing in his hat-box, writing folded away down among the very whalebones of his umbrella." The writing found in the boots proves to be a very pretty story; and it is disposed of, together with the other documents, to the conductor of "All the Year Round" (Mr. Dickens), on the most satisfactory terms. story is put in type; and a young man is sent with "THE PROOFs" to Christopher, who does not understand that they are intended to receive any corrections he may wish to make, but supposes that they are the proofs of his having illegally sold the writings. In a few days, the strange gentleman suddenly re-appears at the coffee-house; and Christopher, overcome with terror and remorse, makes a full confession of what he has done, lays " THE PROOFS " before him, and offers any gradual settlement that may be possible. To his amazement, the unknown grasps his hand, presses him to his breast-bone, calls him "benefactor" and "philanthropist," forces two ten-pound notes upon him, and explains, that, "from boyhood's our," he has "unremittingly and unavailingly endeavored to get into print." Sitting down with several new pens, and all the inkstands wel! filled, he devotes himself, the night through, to the task of correcting the press, and is found, the next morning, to have smeared himself and the proofs to that degree, that "few could have said whick was them and which was him, and which was blots." 440

38*

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Bebelle (a playful name for GABRIELLE). A little orphan-gir, very pretty and very good; the protégée of Corporal Théophile and afterwards adopted by Mr. Langley.

A mere baby, one might call her, dressed in the close white linen cap which small French country-children wear (like the children in Dutch pictures), and in a frock of homespun blue, that had no shape, except where it was tied round her little fat throat; so that, being naturally short, and round all over, she looked behind as if she had been cut off at her natural waist, and had had her head neatly fitted on it.

Bouclet, Madame. Mr. Langley's laudlady; a compact little woman of thirty-five, or so, who lets all her house overlooking the place, in furnished flats, and lives up the yard behind. Christopher. Head waiter at a London coffee-house; born as well as bred to the business. He dedicates his introductory essay on "waitering" to Joseph, "much respected head waiter at the Slamjam Coffee-House, London, E.C., than which, a individual more eminently deserving of the name of man, or a more amenable honor to his own head and heart, whether considered in the light of a waiter, or regarded as a human being, do not exist." Englishman, Mr., The. See LANGLEY, MR.

Gabrielle. See BEBELLE.

Langley, Mr., called MR. THE ENGLISHMAN.

A lodger at

Madame Bouclet's, in the Grande Place of a dull old fortified French town.

In taking his appartement, — or, as one might say on our side of the channel, his set of chambers, - [he] had given his name, correct to the letter, LANGLEY. But as he had a British way of not opening his mouth very wide on foreign soil, except at meals, the Brewery [Madame Bouclet and her family] had been able to make nothing of it but L'Anglais. So Mr. the Englishman he had become, and he remained.

He is a very unreasonable man, given to grumbling, moody, and somewhat vindictive. Having had a quarrel with his erring and disobedient daughter, he has disowned her, and gone abroad to be rid of her for the rest of his life. But becoming acquainted with Corporal Théophile and his orphan charge Bebelle, and witnessing

their strong affection for each other, and the deep grief of the child at the death of her friend, his heart is penetrated and softened. He adopts the forlorn little one as a trust providentially committed to him, and goes back with her to England, determined on a reconciliation with his daughter.

Martin, Miss. A young lady at the bar of the coffee-house where Christopher is head waiter, who makes out the bills.

Mutuel, Monsieur. A friend of Madame Bouclet's; a Frenchman with an amiable old walnut-shell countenance.

A spectacled, snuffy, stooping old gentleman in carpet-shoes, and a cloth-cap with a peaked shade, a loose blue frock-coat reaching to his heels, a large limp white shirt-frill, and cravat to correspond: that is to say, white was the natural color of his linen on Sundays; but it toned down with the week.

Pratchett, Mrs.

Head chambermaid at the coffee-house where

Christopher is head waiter; a female of some pertness, though acquainted with her business." Her husband is in Australia; and his address there is "The Bush."

Théophile, Corporal. A brave French soldier, beloved by all his comrades; friend and protector of little Bebelle.

The corporal, a smart figure of a man of thirty, perhaps a thought under the middle size, but very neatly made, -a sunburnt corporal with a brown peaked beard, . . . . Nothing was amiss or awry about the corporal. A lithe and nimble corporal, quite complete, from the sparkling dark eyes under his knowing uniform cap to his sparkling white gaiters. The very image and presentment of a corporal of his country's army, in the line of his shoulders, the line of his waist, the broadest line of his Bloomer trousers, and their narrowest line at the calf of his leg.

Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings.

[PUBLISHED IN "ALL THE YEAR ROUND," IN DECEMBER, 1863.] THIS Christmas-tale purports to be the reminiscences of a Mrs. Lirriper, a lodging-house keeper of No. 81, Norfolk Street, Strand. It sets forth the circumstances under which she went into the business, and the manner in which she has carried it on for eight and thirty years, including her trials with servant-girls, and her troubles with an opposition establishment The chief interest of the story, however, centres around the child of Mrs. Edson, a delicate young woman, who is cruelly deserted by her husband within a few weeks after their marriage. She dies, heart-broken, in giving birth to a little boy, who is adopted by Mrs. Lirriper, and who is brought up under the joint guardianship of herself, and her friend and lodger, Major Jemmy Jackman.

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Bobbo. Friend and school-fellow of the hero of an extravagant story that Jemmy Lirriper tells his grandmother and godfather. Edson, Mr. A gentleman from the country, who takes lodgings for himself and wife at Mrs. Lirriper's, and, after staying there for three months, cruelly deserts her under pretence of being suddenly called by business to the Isle of Man. See further in “Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy."

Edson, Mrs. Peggy. His wife; a very pretty and delicate young lady. When she discovers that her husband has abandoned her she attempts to end her own life and that of her unborn infant by throwing herself into the Thames; but she is prevented by Mrs