Roundjacket saw the impression he had made, and followed it up by
gazing with admiring delight upon his visitor;--whose countenance, as
soon as the solemnity was forgotten, did not by any means repel.

"It is a very great happiness," said the cavalier, seating himself
on his stool, and, from habit, brandishing his ruler around Miss
Lavinia's head,--"it is a great happiness, madam, when we poor
professional slaves have the pleasure to see one of the divine
sex--one of the ladies of creation, if I may use the phrase. Lawbooks
and papers are--ahem!--very--yes, exceedingly--"

"Dull?" suggested the lady, fanning herself with a measured movement
of the hand.

"Oh! worse, worse! These objects, madam, extinguish all poetry, and
gallantry, and elevated feeling in our unhappy breasts."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, my dear madam, and after a while we become so dead to all
that is beautiful and charming in existence"--that was from Mr.
Roundjacket's poem--"that we are incapable even of appreciating the
delightful society of the fairest and most exquisite of the opposite
sex."

Miss Lavinia shook her head with a ghostly smile.

"I'm afraid you are very gallant, Mr. Roundjacket."

"I, madam? no, no; I am the coldest and most prosaic of men."