minutes afterwards we were on our way towards Babylon. We made but
little progress. The breed of coach horses has been much improved since
the period of which I write, and a journey from Highgate to London was a
much more important event than a railway conductor of the present day
would suppose. My companions were all men. Their conversation turned
upon the topics of the day. A monetary crisis had taken place in the
mercantile world, and for many days I had heard nothing spoken of but
the vast losses which houses and individuals of high character and
standing had incurred, and the bankruptcy with which the community had
become suddenly threatened. The subject had grown stale and wearisome to
me. It had little interest, in fact, for one whose humble salary of one
hundred and fifty pounds per annum depended so little upon the great
fluctuations of commerce, and I accordingly disposed myself for sleep as
soon as the words _bills_, _money_, and _bankruptcy_, became the staple
matter of discourse. I had scarcely established a comfortable doze
before the coach stopped suddenly, and awoke me. It had halted for the
last inside. A gentleman, apparently stout and well wrapped up--it was
impossible to speak positively on the subject, the night was so very
dark--trod his way into the vehicle over the toes of his
fellow-passengers, and took his seat. The coach was once more moving
towards the metropolis, and again I endeavoured to lull myself to sleep.
The same expressions proceeded from the lips of the travellers, and they
were growing more and more indistinct and shadowy, when I was startled
all on a sudden by one of the most palpable sounds that had ever
disturbed and confounded a dreamer. I sat up and listened, coughed to
convince myself that I was certainly awake, and the sounds were repeated
as clear and as audible as before. I would have sworn that Mr Clayton
was the gentleman whom we had last picked up--that he was now in the
coach with me--and was now talking, if the words which fell from the
traveller had not been such as he would never have used, and the subject