Sketches by Boz | Page 8

cab ten minutes before, dressed in a

light-blue coat and double-milled kersey pantaloons, white neckerchief,
pumps, and dress-gloves, his manner denoting, as appeared from the
evidence of the housemaid at No. 23, who was sweeping the door-steps
at the time, a considerable degree of nervous excitement. It was also
hastily reported on the same testimony, that the cook who opened the
door, wore a large white bow of unusual dimensions, in a much smarter
head-dress than the regulation cap to which the Miss Willises
invariably restricted the somewhat excursive tastes of female servants
in general.
The intelligence spread rapidly from house to house. It was quite clear
that the eventful morning had at length arrived; the whole row stationed
themselves behind their first and second floor blinds, and waited the
result in breathless expectation.
At last the Miss Willises' door opened; the door of the first glass-coach
did the same. Two gentlemen, and a pair of ladies to
correspond--friends of the family, no doubt; up went the steps, bang
went the door, off went the first class-coach, and up came the second.
The street door opened again; the excitement of the whole row
increased--Mr. Robinson and the eldest Miss Willis. 'I thought so,' said
the lady at No. 19; 'I always said it was MISS Willis!'-- 'Well, I never!'
ejaculated the young lady at No. 18 to the young lady at No. 17.--'Did
you ever, dear!' responded the young lady at No. 17 to the young lady
at No. 18. 'It's too ridiculous!' exclaimed a spinster of an UNcertain age,
at No. 16, joining in the conversation. But who shall portray the
astonishment of Gordon- place, when Mr. Robinson handed in ALL the
Miss Willises, one after the other, and then squeezed himself into an
acute angle of the glass-coach, which forthwith proceeded at a brisk
pace, after the other glass-coach, which other glass-coach had itself
proceeded, at a brisk pace, in the direction of the parish church! Who
shall depict the perplexity of the clergyman, when ALL the Miss
Willises knelt down at the communion-table, and repeated the
responses incidental to the marriage service in an audible voice--or who
shall describe the confusion which prevailed, when--even after the
difficulties thus occasioned had been adjusted--ALL the Miss Willises

went into hysterics at the conclusion of the ceremony, until the sacred
edifice resounded with their united wailings!
As the four sisters and Mr. Robinson continued to occupy the same
house after this memorable occasion, and as the married sister, whoever
she was, never appeared in public without the other three, we are not
quite clear that the neighbours ever would have discovered the real Mrs.
Robinson, but for a circumstance of the most gratifying description,
which WILL happen occasionally in the best-regulated families. Three
quarter-days elapsed, and the row, on whom a new light appeared to
have been bursting for some time, began to speak with a sort of implied
confidence on the subject, and to wonder how Mrs. Robinson--the
youngest Miss Willis that was- -got on; and servants might be seen
running up the steps, about nine or ten o'clock every morning, with
'Missis's compliments, and wishes to know how Mrs. Robinson finds
herself this morning?' And the answer always was, 'Mrs. Robinson's
compliments, and she's in very good spirits, and doesn't find herself any
worse.' The piano was heard no longer, the knitting-needles were laid
aside, drawing was neglected, and mantua-making and millinery, on the
smallest scale imaginable, appeared to have become the favourite
amusement of the whole family. The parlour wasn't quite as tidy as it
used to be, and if you called in the morning, you would see lying on a
table, with an old newspaper carelessly thrown over them, two or three
particularly small caps, rather larger than if they had been made for a
moderate-sized doll, with a small piece of lace, in the shape of a
horse-shoe, let in behind: or perhaps a white robe, not very large in
circumference, but very much out of proportion in point of length, with
a little tucker round the top, and a frill round the bottom; and once
when we called, we saw a long white roller, with a kind of blue margin
down each side, the probable use of which, we were at a loss to
conjecture. Then we fancied that Dr. Dawson, the surgeon, &c., who
displays a large lamp with a different colour in every pane of glass, at
the corner of the row, began to be knocked up at night oftener than he
used to be; and once we were very much alarmed by hearing a
hackney-coach stop at Mrs. Robinson's door, at half-past two o'clock in
the morning, out of which there emerged a fat old woman, in a cloak
and night-cap, with a