I ever saw who could stand upon one leg, and play the tambourine on her other knee, like a sylph."
"When does she come down?" asked Nicholas.
"We expect her to-day," replied Mr. Crummles. "She is an old friend of Mrs. Crummles's. Mrs. Crummles saw what she could do—always knew it from the first. She taught her, indeed, nearly all she knows. Mrs. Crummles was the original Blood Drinker."
"Was she, indeed?"
"Yes. She was obliged to give it up though."
"Did it disagree with her?" asked Nicholas, smiling.
"Not so much with her, as with her audiences," replied Mr. Crummles. "Nobody could stand it. It was too tremendous. You don't quite know what Mrs. Crummles is, yet."
Nicholas ventured to insinuate that he thought he did.
"No, no, you don t," said Mr. Crummles; "you don't, indeed. I don't, and that's a fact; I don't think her country will till she is dead. Some new proof of talent bursts from that astonishing woman every year of her life. Look at her—mother of six children—three of 'em alive, and all upon the stage!"
"Extraordinary!" cried Nicholas.
"Ah! extraordinary indeed," rejoined Mr. Crummles, taking a complacent pinch of snuff, and shaking his head gravely. "I pledge you my professional word I didn't even know she could dance till her last benefit, and then she played Juliet and Helen Macgrecgor, and did the skipping-rope hornpipe between the pieces. The very first time I saw that admirable woman, Johnson," said Mr. Crummles, drawing a little nearer, and speaking in the tone of confidential friendship, "she stood upon her head on the butt-end of a spear, surrounded with blazing fire-works."
"You astonish me!" said Nicholas.
"She astonished me!" returned Mr. Crummles, with a very serious countenance. "Such grace, coupled with such dignity! I adored her from that moment."
The arrival of the gifted subject of these remarks put an abrupt termination to Mr. Crummles's eulogium, and almost immediately afterwards. Master Percy Crummles entered with a letter, which had arrived by the General Post, and was directed to his gracious mother; at sight of the superscription whereof, Mrs. Crummles exclaimed, "From Henrietta Petowker, I do declare!" and instantly became absorbed in the contents.
"Is it——?" inquired Mr. Crummles, hesitating.
"Oh yes, it's all right," replied Mrs. Crummles, anticipating the question. "What an excellent thing for her, to be sure!"
"It's the best thing altogether that I ever heard of, I think," said Mr. Crummles; and then Mr. Crummles, Mrs. Crummles, and Master Percy Crummles all fell to laughing violently. Nicholas left them to enjoy their mirth together, and walked to his lodgings, wondering very much what mystery connected with Miss Petowker could provoke such merriment, and pondering still more on the extreme surprise with which
