Sir," returned Mrs. Sparsit, " I cannot say that i have heard him precisely snore, and therefore must not make that statement. But on winter evenings, when he has fallen asleep at his table, I have heard him, what I should prefer to describe as partially choke. I have heard him on such occasions produce sounds of a nature similar to what may be heard in dutch clocks. Not," said Mrs. Sparsit, with a lofty sense of giving strict evidence, " That I would convey any imputation on his moral character. Far from it.

Nobody near me here, but rats, and they are fine stealthy secret fellows.

Cheerfulness and contentment are great beautifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks.

As I said just now, the world has gone past me. I don't blame it; but I no longer understand it. Tradesmen are not the same as they used to be, apprentices are not the same, business is not the same, business commodities are not the same. Seven-eighths of my stock is old-fashioned. I am an old-fashioned man in an old-fashioned shop, in a street that is not the same as I remember it. I have fallen behind the time, and am too old to catch it again.

Please, sir, I want some more.

We must leave the discovery of this mystery, like all others, to time, and accident, and Heaven's pleasure.

And this is the eternal law. For, Evil often stops short at istelf and dies with the doer of it! but Good, never.