her nose in the air, and sneezing most awful, not being accustomed
to that which I take, find it strengthening, but as it have been a
cause of sorrow and strife let it be nameless between you and me.
For to have the name "Snuffey" brought forward it is what the heart
can forgive, but never forget in this valley of the shaddock.

I have nussed a many lunacies, Betsy, and in a general way am
dispoged to humour them rather than set them right up agin the fire
when fractious. But this Pecksniff is the tryingest creature; he
having got it in his mind as he is Somebody very high, and talking
about the House, and Bills, and clauses, and the "sacred cause of
Universal Anarchy," for such was his Bible language, though meaning
to me no more than the babe unborn. Whereby Mrs. Harris she have
often said to me, "What DO them blessed infants occupy their little
minds with afore they are called into that condition where, unless
changed at nuss, Providence have appointed them?" And many a time
have I said, "Seek not, Mrs. Harris, to diskiver; for we know not
wot's hidden in our own hearts, and the torters of the Imposition
should not make me diwulge it."

But Pecksniff is that aggravating as I can hardly heed the words I
now put on the paper.

"Some of my birds have left me," says he, "for the stranger's
breast, and one have took wing for the Government benches. {3} But
I have ever sacrificed my country's happiness to my own, and I will
not begin to regulate my life by other rules of conduct now. I
know the purity of my own motives, and while my Merry, my little
Sir William, playful warbler, prattles under this patriarchal wing,
and my Cherry, my darling Morley, supports the old man's tottering