Crotchet Castle

e vu spectateur ocieux de tant vaillans

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reat fortune in the city, and has the comfort of a good conscience. He is very hospitable, and is generous in dinners; though nothing would induce him to give sixpence to the poor, because he holds that all misfortune is from imprudence, that none but the rich ought to marry, and that all ought to thrive by honest industry, as he did. He is ambitious of founding a family, and of allying himself with nobility; and is thus as willing as other grown children to throw away thousands for a gew-gaw, though he would not part with a penny for charity. Next to him is my brother, whom you know as well as I do. He has finished his education with credit, and as he never ventures to oppose me in anything, I have no doubt he is very sens

which is that of an angel, you need not fear him. If he

s life in studying poisons and antidotes. The first thing he did on his arrival here was to kill the cat; an

care to keep them both at a respectful distance. Let us hope that Eavesdro

affairs of this world into questions of buying and selling. He is the Spirit of the Frozen Ocean to everything like romance and sentiment. He condenses their volume of steam into a d

shall discuss that poi

your life. Our flirtation is o

ation, Clarinda! Is that

ort of poetical philosopher, a curious compound of the intense and the mystical. He abom

e.-Then, I say, h

f them is amusing, and I like to hear them dispute.

r Heaven's sake, but the pound-shillin

ot an ill name by keeping bad company. He has two dear friends, Mr. Wilful Wontsee, and Mr. Rumblesack Shantsee, poets of some note, who used to see visions of Utopia, and pure republics beyond the Western deep: but, finding th

.-I do not fancy t

y, when nothing was going forward but fighting, feasting, and praying, which he says are the three great purposes for which man was made. He laments bitterly over the inventions of gunpowder, steam, and gas, which he says have ruined the world. He lives within two or three miles, and has a larg

That will be somethi

ut wants to parcel out the world into squares like a chess-board, with a community on each, raising everythin

-He is the stranges

the table, where sits my humble servant, Mr. Cr

chrome.-I en

really have very litt

hear anything in his favour; and I

ox, and make some of my acquaintance who have married for love, or for rank, or for anything but money, die for envy of my jewels. You do not think I would take him for himself.

lieve, that, speaking thus of h

on, and must think, like other people, of settling myself advantageously. He was in love with a banker's daugh

have a strange taste, if sh

mbler. I suspect he has still a penchant towards his first flame. If he takes me, it will be for my rank and connection, and the second sea

can expect no security

is destiny, he may go, you know, by himself. He is almost always dreaming and distrait. It is ver

torture me, Clarinda, wi

I do not know how this may be. He plays well on the violoncello, and better on the piano; sings agreeably; has a talent at versemaking, and improvises a song with some felicity. He is very agreeable company in the evening, with his i

That is a very pleas

ere is no such thing as contagion; and has inoculated himself with plague, yellow fever, and every variety of pestilence, and is still alive to tell the s

.-This is the stra

rs, and lays down the streams of Terra Incognita as accurately as if he had been there. He is a person of pleasant

ow does he settle mat

es, at his pleasure, of the land and its live stock, including all the two-legged varieties, with and without feathers, in a circumference of several miles round Steeltrap Lodge. He has enclosed commons and woodlands; abolished cottage gardens; taken the village cricket-ground into his own park, out of pure regard to the sanctity of Sunday; shut up footpaths and

is element here: among such a diversity of

u is the Reverend Doctor Folliott. He is said to be an excellent scholar, and is fonder of books than the majority of his cloth; he is very fond, also, of the good things of this world. He is of an admirable temper, and says rude things in a pleasant half-

the witty, the fascinating, the tormenting, Lady Clarinda, who traduces hersel

how, sir. And now we have

ways a turn for sketching characters, you surprise me by you

will tell you a secre

itzchrome

and I thought to myself, why I can do better than any of these myself. So I wrote a chapter or two, and sent them as a specimen to Mr. Puffall, the book-seller, telling him they were to be a part of the fashionable something or oth

me.-Surely you h

Mr. Eavesdrop. But Mr. Puffall made it

ome.-A strange

rom themselves. I have commended you to three of our friends here as an economist, a transcendentalist, and a classical scholar; and if you wish to

e praise of such gentry must

all's favourite phrase. He makes the newspapers say it of everything he publishes. But "the day," you know, is a very con