Thackeray immediately called upon the gentleman, and it is said that the visit was pleasant to both parties.
There certainly was no blood shed.
He had now succeeded,--in 1848,--in making for himself a standing as a man of letters, and an income.

What was the extent of his income I have no means of saying; nor is it a subject on which, as I think, inquiry should be made.

But he was not satisfied with his position.

He felt it to be precarious, and he was always thinking of what he owed to his two girls.

That _arbitrium popularis aurae_ on which he depended for his daily bread was not regarded by him with the confidence which it deserved.