"My Jo!" he exclaims, in a very high key, almost between laughing and crying. I find out that "My Jo," is _his_ rendering of "By Jove!"--a very harmless oath--"My Jo! I could not!" Then he enters appealingly to us into an explanation. "Madame Regniati vas in ze car-ri-age, and she say to me, Mr. Regniati, she say, I did not see ze boxes-put-in,"--this is all one word.--"I say my dear eet ees all right. She say No you go see it, for I tinks not. Den I go. I say vere ees my box, but I see no-sing, no veres, den ven I try to find my car-ri-age again ze train goes off. I jomp into a carri-age and a man say you most not do zat, but I tomble in. I do not know vere de train goes to, but it vas not to come 'ere and ven I stop--My Jo!--dey ask-a-me for my tee-kets. 'I 'ave not zem,' I say, 'my vife 'as zem.' Zen zey say to me I most buy vun. My Jo! I say I can-not! I 'ave no money. I vant I say to go to Blackmeer. Oh zey say zat is on a-noser line, in a-noser contry. My Jo! I say to 'im vot shall I do? Zen I meet a gentle-mans who know me and he say----" "Nonsense, Mr. Regniati. I believe you stopped at the refreshment-room in London----" "Oh My Jo! my dear! I as-sure you," he commences, but Madame cuts him short. "Go and dress, Mr. Regniati," she says, "and don't be long. Dick, show Mr. Regniati his room, and bring him down in five minutes. Don't let him chatter." Milburd takes his uncle out, and we hear him repeating his story to his nephew, as he crosses the hall, and ascends the stairs. [Illustration: "PIGGY WIGGY."] CHAPTER XVII. SUNDAY--SUNDAY REASONS--A CHAMBER DIALOGUE. _Sunday Meditations._--When we first saw this place we called it The House of Good Intentions. It recurs to me forcibly at this moment, as I look over my note-book. Under the heading of "Operanda," or Works to be done, I find:-- (a) _Continuation of Typical Developments. Vol. III._ (b) _A Guide to Hertfordshire._ (c) _A Lesser Dictionary of French words not generally found in other Lexicographical compilations._ (d) Theories on Dew. Practical utilitarian results. (e) A Commentary on hitherto obscure portions of Shakespeare's plays, with a life of the Great Poet, gathered from _obiter dicta_, which nobody has, up to this time, noticed. (f) "All Law founded upon Common Sense," _being a few steps towards the abolition of technicalities and antique repetitions in our legal proceedings_. (g) _Pendant to the above, "Every man his own lawyer and somebody else's."_ (h) _Studies in the Country._ I thought I should have been able to write a good deal in this line while at the country-house. This was to include botany, farming, agriculture generally, with a resumption of what I took up years ago, as a Happy Thought, namely, "Inquiries into, and Observations upon, the Insect World."