For three weeks the resolution not to regard him as of the past was general.  The Aurora was the old gentleman’s home.  Men do not play truant from home at sixty years of age.  He must, therefore, be seriously indisposed.  The kind heart of the landlady fretted to think he might have no soul to nurse and care for him; but she kept his corner near the fire-place vacant, and took care that his pint of Madeira was there.  The belief was gaining ground that he had gone, and that nothing but his ghost would ever sit there again.  Still the melancholy ceremony continued:  for the landlady was not without a secret hope, that in spite of his reserve and the mystery surrounding him, he would have sent her a last word.  The cook and head-waiter, interrogated as to their dealings with the old gentleman, testified solemnly to the fact of their having performed their duty by him.  They would not go against their interests so much as to forget one of his ways, they said-taking oath, as it were, by their lower nature, in order to be credited:  an instinct men have of one another.  The landlady could not contradict them, for the old gentleman had made no complaint; but then she called to memory that fifteen years back, in such and such a year, Wednesday’s, dish had been, by shameful oversight, furnished him for Tuesday’s, and he had eaten it quietly, but refused his Port; which pathetic event had caused alarm and inquiry, when the error was discovered, and apologized for, the old gentleman merely saying, ‘Don’t let it happen again.’  Next day he drank his Port, as usual, and the wheels of the Aurora went smoothly.  The landlady was thus justified in averring that something had been done by somebody, albeit unable to point to anything specific.  Women, who are almost as deeply bound to habit as old gentlemen, possess more of its spiritual element, and are warned by dreams, omens, creepings of the flesh, unwonted chills, suicide of china, and other shadowing signs, when a break is to be anticipated, or, has occurred.  The landlady of the Aurora tavern was visited by none of these, and with that beautiful trust which habit gives, and which boastful love or vainer earthly qualities would fail in effecting, she ordered that the pint of Madeira should stand from six o’clock in the evening till seven—­a small monument of confidence in him who was at one instant the ‘poor old dear’; at another, the ’naughty old gad-about’; further, the ‘faithless old-good-for-nothing’; and again, the ‘blessed pet’ of the landlady’s parlour, alternately and indiscriminately apostrophized by herself, her sister, and daughter.

On the last day of the month a step was heard coming up the long alley which led from the riotous scrambling street to the plentiful cheerful heart of the Aurora.  The landlady knew the step.  She checked the natural flutterings of her ribbons, toned down the strong simper that was on her lips, rose, pushed aside her daughter, and, as the step approached, curtsied composedly.  Old Habit lifted his hat, and passed.  With the same touching confidence in the Aurora that the Aurora had in him, he went straight to his corner, expressed no surprise at his welcome by the Madeira, and thereby apparently indicated that his appearance should enjoy a similar immunity.