little mental puddles and cross-roads of this world with a chariness of
step, which is at once edifying and amusing. Of inward show _he_ is not
less "elaborate" than of outward; and, though a descendant of Eve, takes
equal care of the clothing of both mind and body.

Were his tailor to be abandoned enough to attempt to palm upon him a coat
of the very best Yorkshire, instead of the very best Wiltshire broad-cloth,
(an enormity of which--_horresco referens_--he was once very near being
the victim,) the one would be sure to lose, if discovered, the best of his
customers, and the other the best of a month's sleep. If he wears a wig,
his expenditure with his _peruquier_ is never less than five-and-twenty
guineas a-year. His cigars, though he smokes little, cost him nearly as
much. His hat is water-proof; his stop-watch and repeater are of a
scapement that never varies more than six seconds in the twelve months
from the time-piece at the Observatory at Greenwich, where he has a friend,
who is so good as sometimes to compare notes with him. By the advice of
his boot-maker--who, by the way, has some knowledge of the length of his
foot--he never puts on a new pair until they are at least a year old; and
he parted with his last footboy because he one day discovered a
perceptible difference between the polish of the right and left foot. In
winter, he wears and recommends cork soles. His toilet is no sinecure; and
on the table are always to be found, besides his dressing-box, which
contains an assortment of combs, scissors, tweezers, pomades, and essences,
not easily equalled, a bottle of "Eau de Cologne, veritable," a Packwood
and Criterion strop; a case of gold-mounted razors, (the best in England,)
which he bought, nearly thirty years ago, of the successor of "Warren," in
the Strand, and a silvered shaving-pot, upon a principle of his own,
redolent of Rigges' "patent violet-scented soap." His net-silk purse is
ringed with gold at one end, and with silver at the other; and although
not _much_ of a snuff-taker, he always carries a box, on the lid of which