_The Secret Spring_.

There are with all great affairs smaller affairs connected, so that in
the watch-work of society, the most skilful artist is sometimes
puzzled to fix upon the very little wheel by which the greater wheels
are worked.


"_Bad Company_."

The subject under discussion was the great advantages likely to arise
from the establishment of the North Shields Sawdust Consolidation
Company, in which Apperton told Maxwell there were still seventy-four
shares to be purchased: they were hundred pound shares, and were
actually down at eighty-nine, would be at fifteen premium on the
following Saturday, and must eventually rise to two hundred and
thirty, for reasons which he gave in the most plausible manner, and
which were in themselves perfectly satisfactory, as he said, to the
"meanest capacity;" a saying with which it might have been perfectly
safe to agree.


_Love_.

What does Sterne say? That love is no more made by talking of it, than
a black pudding would be. Habit, association, assimilation of tastes,
communion of thought, kindness without pretension, solicitude without
effort, a tacit agreement and a silent sympathy; these are the