A Great Man

e-dispersing, commonsense-bestowing bath for Henry. He had meant to tell Sir George casually that he had taken advantage of his e

rming weaknesses to which great and serious men are sometimes tempted, but of which great and serious men never boast. And he therefore confined his personal gossip with Sir George to the turkey, the mince-tarts,

unaware that such a thing as fiction existed. Not a soul at the Polytechnic enjoyed the acquaintance of either an author or a publisher, though various souls had theories about these classes of persons. Then one day a new edition of the works of Carlyle burst on the world, and Henry bought the first volume, Sartor Resartus, a book which he much admired, and which he had learnt from his father to call simply and familiarly-Sartor. The edition, though inexpensive, had a great air of dignity. It met, in short,

you'll re

, but the advisability of such

'd better,

ounds if it's lost, doesn'

dded and

tter insure it,

ure it for a hundred pounds,

nry, who had all such details by heart. 'I co

unds then,' Aunt Ann

his point Henry ceased to insure the parcel.) Another sent it back minus the last leaf, the matter of which Henry had to reinvent and Aunt Annie to recopy. Another returned it insufficiently stamped, and there was fourpence to pay. Another kept it four months, and disgorged it only under threat of a writ; the threat was launched forth on Powells' formidable notepaper. At length there arrived a day when even Henry's pertinacity was fatigued, and he forgot, merely forgot, to send out the parcel again. It was put in a drawer, after a year of ceaseless adventures, and Mrs. Knight and Aunt Annie discreetly forbore to mention it. During t

languished in the dr

was received at Dawes Road, Fulham: 'Please bring

nic confusion. Before tearing the envelope she had guessed that Aunt Annie had met with an accident, that Henry was dead, and that her own Aunt Eliza in Glossop had died without making a

turned, with her masc

the top left-hand drawer of his desk. That's what he

night replied hastily. '

the bell with

get me a cab, a four-wheeler.

et on, mum?' Sarah asked, g

o inst

es

d found the manuscript and put it under her arm. 'Perhaps he has m

t it,' said Mrs. Knight. 'But he nev

ingly up to the

se outside the front-door. It was a snowy and sleety April morning, and

wasn't one,' Sara

cabman brightly. 'You'll never get

omen, she had a dislike of hansoms which amounted to dread. She feared a hansom as though i

She was torn between her allegiance to the dar

ith you?' Mrs.

Annie, clenching her

ad the window down because of the snow and the sleet; then they had it up because of the impure air; and lastly Aunt Annie wedged a corner of the manusc

e horse of the hansom drew level with the tail of the market-cart, the off hind wheel of the cart succumbed, and a ton or more of spring onions wavered and slanted in the snowy air. The driver of the hansom did his best, but he could not prevent his horse from premature burial amid spring onions

allantly, unharmed, and the window of the hansom was not even cracked. The constable congratulated everyone and took down the names of the tw

horrible discovery that Love in Babylon had disappear

seeing signs of an emotional crisis, 'and go a

dies o

d, chapter by chapter, and Aunt Annie held

ance an empty four

o it, and Aunt Anni

she said to the driver,