"Indeed.

"Well, you might take a little notice of me."

"Why? Is there anything remarkable about you this morning?"

"No, there is not; but, remarkable or not, a man who has been fool
enough"--Mr. Bellamy laid great emphasis on the word "fool"--"to get
married has a right to expect when he comes into his own house that he
will have a little notice taken of him, and not be as completely
overlooked as--as though he were a tub of butter in a grocer's shop;"
and he pugged out his chest, rubbed his hands, and looked defiant.

The lady laid her head back on the chair, and laughed with exquisite
enjoyment.

"Really, my dear John, you will kill me," she said at length.

"May I ask," he replied, looking as though there was nothing in the
world that he would like better, "what you are laughing at?"

"Your slightly vulgar but happy simile; it is easy to see where you
draw your inspiration from. If you had only said butterine, inferior
butter, you know, the counterfeit article, it would have been
perfect."

Her husband gave a glance at his tubby little figure in the glass.

"Am I to understand that you refer to me as 'butterine,' Mrs.