and so we got up this story-club, and got my brother and the rest to bear
a hand in it. It did her all the good the most sanguine of us could have
hoped for."

"I thought it horrid slow."

"I am surprised at that, for you were generally asleep."

"I was forced, in self-defence. I couldn't smoke."

"It gave her something to think about."

"So it seems."

"Now, Mr. Percy, how could you think you had the smallest chance with her,
when here was the first one and then another turning each the flash of his
own mental prism upon her weary eyes, and healing them with light; while
you would not take the smallest trouble to gratify her, or even to show
yourself to anything like advantage?--My dear fellow, what a fool you
are!"

"Mr. Armstrong!"

"Come, come--you began with frankness, and I've only gone on with it. You
are a good-hearted fellow, and ought to be made something of."

"At all events, you make something of yourself, to talk of your own
productions as the elixir _vitae_."

"You forget that I am in disgrace as well as yourself on that score; for I