"Dear me," ejaculated the Gospeler, gasping, "I only meant--"

"I defend my brother," continued MAGNOLIA, passionately, "as in the
Antigone of SOPHOCLES, ELECTRA defends ORESTES; and even if he has no
PYLADES, he shall still be not without a friend in the habitation of the
Pylopidae."

"Upon my soul!" murmured the Reverend Mr. SIMPSON, "this is a dreadful
state of things."

"I may as well confess to you, sir," said MONTGOMERY, temporarily
removing his fingers from his ears, "that I admire Miss POTTS as much as
I'm down on DROOD."

"He admires her," struck in his sister, "as ALCMAN, of Sardis, admired
MEGALOSTRATA; and, in her betrothal to a Yankee, sees another SAPPHO
matrimonially sacrificed to another CERCOLAS of Andros."

"Mr. PENDRAGON," panted the Gospeler, "you must give up this
infatuation. The Flowerpot is engaged to another, and you have no
business to express such sentiments for another's bride until after she
is married. Eloquently as your sister--"

"I pretend to be no MYRTIS, in genius," continued MAGNOLIA, humbly. "I
am not an ERINNA, an AMYTE, a PRAXILLA, or a NOSSIS; but all that is
intellectually repugnant within me is stirred by this treatment of my
brother, who is no PHILODEMUS to find in Mr. DROOD his PISO; and
sometimes I feel as though, like another SIMONIDES, I could fly with him
from this inhospitable Northern house of SCOPAS, to the refuge of some
more generous DIOSCURI. In the present macrocosm, to which we have come