First we went into lodgings,—­into three sets in three weeks.  We quarrelled with the first landlady, because my aunt vowed that she cut a slice off the leg of mutton which was served for our dinner; from the second lodgings we went because aunt vowed the maid would steal the candles; from the third we went because Aunt Hoggarty came down to breakfast the morning after our arrival with her face shockingly swelled and bitten by—­never mind what.  To cut a long tale short, I was half mad with the continual choppings and changings, and the long stories and scoldings of my aunt.  As for her great acquaintances, none of them were in London; and she made it a matter of quarrel with me that I had not introduced her to John Brough, Esquire, M.P., and to Lord and Lady Tiptoff, her relatives.

Mr. Brough was at Brighton when we arrived in town; and on his return I did not care at first to tell our Director that I had brought my aunt with me, or mention my embarrassments for money.  He looked rather serious when perforce I spoke of the latter to him and asked for an advance; but when he heard that my lack of money had been occasioned by the bringing of my aunt to London, his tone instantly changed.  “That, my dear boy, alters the question; Mrs. Hoggarty is of an age when all things must be yielded to her.  Here are a hundred pounds; and I beg you to draw upon me whenever you are in the least in want of money.”  This gave me breathing-time until she should pay her share of the household expenses.  And the very next day Mr. and Mrs. John Brough, in their splendid carriage-and-four, called upon Mrs. Hoggarty and my wife at our lodgings in Lamb’s Conduit Street.

It was on the very day when my poor aunt appeared with her face in that sad condition; and she did not fail to inform Mrs. Brough of the cause, and to state that at Castle Hoggarty, or at her country place in Somersetshire, she had never heard or thought of such vile odious things.

“Gracious heavens!” shouted John Brough, Esquire, “a lady of your rank to suffer in this way!—­the excellent relative of my dear boy, Titmarsh!  Never, madam—­never let it be said that Mrs. Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty should be subject to such horrible humiliation, while John Brough has a home to offer her,—­a humble, happy, Christian home, madam; though unlike, perhaps, the splendour to which you have been accustomed in the course of your distinguished career.  Isabella my love!—­Belinda! speak to Mrs. Hoggarty.  Tell her that John Brough’s house is hers from garret to cellar.  I repeat it, madam, from garret to cellar.  I desire—­I insist—­I order, that Mrs. Hoggarty of Castle Hoggarty’s trunks should be placed this instant in my carriage!  Have the goodness to look to them yourself, Mrs. Titmarsh, and see that your dear aunt’s comforts are better provided for than they have been.”

Mary went away rather wondering at this order.  But, to be sure, Mr. Brough was a great man, and her Samuel’s benefactor; and though the silly child absolutely began to cry as she packed and toiled at Aunt’s enormous valises, yet she performed the work, and came down with a smiling face to my aunt, who was entertaining Mr. and Mrs. Brough with a long and particular account of the balls at the Castle, in Dublin, in Lord Charleville’s time.