"I'm going for my first omnibus ride to-morrow," said I heroically.
Upon which assertion Rogers entered announcing that her ladyship's
carriage had arrived. A while later I accompanied her downstairs and
along the arcade.
"I shall be so miserable, thinking of you, poor old boy," she said
affectionately, as she bade me good-bye.
"Don't, I am going to enjoy myself for the first time in my life."
These were "prave 'orts," but I felt doleful enough when I re-entered
the chambers where I had lived in uncomplaining luxury for fourteen
years.
"There's no help for it," I murmured. "I must get rid of the remainder
of my lease, sell my books and pictures and other more or less expensive
household goods, dismiss Rogers and Bingley, and go and live on thirty
shillings a week in a Bloomsbury boarding-house. I think," I continued,
regarding myself in the Queen Anne mirror over the mantelpiece, "I think
that it will better harmonise with my fallen fortunes if I refrain from
waxing the ends of my moustache.
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