The old woman greedily snapped at the offer; and the good-natured butcher helped her daughter and herself into the cart, which immediately drove on again at a spanking pace. And now full soon did the myriad lights of London greet the eyes of the travellers; and Perdita felt her heart dilate with ineffable emotions as she drew near that sovereign city of a thousand towers, pinnacles, and spires,--that mighty Babylon in which all her hopes, her aims, her ambitious views were centred. A misty haze of light, resembling a faintly illuminated fog, appeared to hang over the vast metropolis;--and as the vehicle approached nearer and nearer still, the countless dwellings began to stand out in relief from the bosom of that dimly lustrous shroud. On--on the travellers go: the houses are scattered along the road;--but in a short time they become continuous ranges of habitations;--and now it may be airily said that the wheels of the cart rattle on the pavement of London. But a feeling of disappointment seizes upon Perdita: instead of lordly mansions, she sees dingy-looking tenements of no considerable size, and presenting any thing but an imposing appearance, especially at that sombre hour. Nevertheless, the farther she advances the more satisfied does she become;--and now the travellers reach that great junction-point for cross-roads, where stands the Elephant and Castle. The tap is open--the butcher stops, alights, and disappears inside the establishment. In a few minutes he returns with a steaming hot glass of brandy-and-water,--for a good-natured fellow is this butcher;--and he kindly proffers it to the two females. It was not because Perdita was so handsome, that he did it: no--it was through pure kindness, and as much for the sake of her mother as of herself. Nor did the two females require much pressing to partake of the welcome beverage; and while they were drinking _their_ glass, their good-hearted friend hurried back to the tap to enjoy _his own_ reeking jorum. And now away they speed again--up the Waterloo Road--over the bridge. Then and there it was that a splendid and soul-stirring spectacle burst upon the sight of Perdita:--for an instant her admiration was rivetted to that magnificent piece of masonry constituting the finest viaduct of the kind in the whole world;--but in the next she threw her glances right and left, embracing thus rapidly all the splendid features of a scene bathed in silver by the cloudless lamp of night. The bosom of the mighty Thames reflected the lights on the banks and the bridges,--those very lights tracing the course of the proud stream and marking its ample width:--then her looks dwelt on the mighty dome of Saint Paul’s, rearing its colossal head to the deep purple summer sky;--and lastly they ran rapidly along the northern shore, embracing each point of interest, until they stopped at the New Houses of Parliament, so gleamingly white in the chaste lustre of the moon.