Postscript0
Now that the time is come for taking leave, I find that the words I have to add are very few indeed.
We part until next November. It is a long parting between us, but if I have left you anything by which to remember me, in the meanwhile, with no unkind or distant feelings—anything by which I may be associated in spirit with your firesides, homes, and blameless pleasures—I am happy.
Believe me it has ever been my true desire to add to the common stock of healthful cheerfulness, good humour, and good-will, and trust me when I return to England and to another tale of English life and manners, I shall not slacken in this zealous work.
I take the opportunity for thanking all those who have addressed me by letter since the appearance of the foregoing announcement; and of expressing a hope that they will rest contented with this form of acknowledgment, as their number renders it impossible to me to answer them individually.
I bid farewell to them and all my readers with a regret that we feel in taking leave of Friends who have become endeared to us by long and close communication; and I look forward with truthfulness and pleasure to our next meeting.
November, 1841.
Footnotes
0 Postscript, printed on the wrapper of No. 87 of “Master Humphrey’s Clock”.
255 Old Curiosity Shop begins here.
292 Old Curiosity Shop is continued here, completing No. IV.
300 Old Curiosity Shop is continued to the end of the number.
306 Old Curiosity Shop is continued from here to the end without further break. Master Humphrey is revived thus at the close of the Old Curiosity Shop, merely to introduce Barnaby Rudge.
311 This was Barnaby Rudge, contained in vol. ix. of this Edition. This is, as indicated, the final appearance of Master Humphrey’s Clock. It forms the conclusion of Barnaby Rudge.