Lever woman?" "A genuine humbug, I should say--gooseberry champagne at two shillings a bottle," was the somewhat professional verdict on Miss Hendy's claims. "Oh! you shouldn't talk that way of Miss Hendy--who knows but she may be my mamma soon?" "He can never be such a confounded jackass!" said Mr Sidsby, without giving a local habitation or a name to the personal pronoun _he_. "He loses his daughters, I can tell him," said Miss Sophy with a toss of her head, that set all the flowers on the top of her bonnet shaking--"Emily and I are quite resolved on that." "But what can you do?" enquired the gentleman, who did not appear to be very nearly akin to Oedipus. "Do? Why, don't we get possession of mamma's fortune if he marries; and can't we--oh, you've squeezed my ring into my finger!" "My dear Sophy, I was only trying to show you how much I admired your spirit. I hope he'll marry Miss Hendy with all my heart." When a conversation has got to this point, a chronicle of any pretensions to respectability will maintain a rigid
