ts and admirers. I made the best bow I could, and advanced
towards her; and saw by a peculiar puzzled look in her face, though she
tried to hide her perplexity, that she had forgotten even my name.

'Her talk, artful as it was, convinced me that I had guessed aright. She
turned the conversation most ridiculously upon the spelling of names and
words; and I replied with as ridiculous, fulsome compliments as I could
pay her; indeed, one in which I compared her to an angel visiting the
sick-wells, went a little too far; nor should I have employed it, but
that the allusion came from the Second Lesson last Sunday, which we both
had heard, and I was pressed to answer her.

'Then she came to the question, which I knew was awaiting me, and asked
how I _spelt_ my name? "Madam," says I, turning on my heel, "I spell it
with the y." And so I left her, wondering at the light-heartedness of
the town-people, who forget and make friends so easily, and resolved to
look elsewhere for a partner for your constant reader.

'CYMON WYLDOATS.

'You know my real name, Mr. Spectator, in which there is no such a
letter as _hupsilon_. But if the lady, whom I have called Saccharissa,
wonders that I appear no more at the tea-tables, she is hereby
respectfully informed the reason y.'

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)

There are few better examples by converse of the saying
(familiar in various forms and sometimes specially applied
to writing and answering letters) that it is only idle
people who have no time to do anything, than Dickens. He was
by no means long-lived: and for the last
three-fifths--practically the whole busy time--of his life,
he was one of the busiest of men. He wrote many universally
known books, and not a few, in some cases not so well known,
articles. He travelled a great deal; edited periodicals for
many years, taking that duty by no means in the spirit of
Olympian aloofness which some popular opinion connects with
editorship; only sometimes shirked society; and had all
sorts of miscellaneous occupations and avocations. His very
fancy for long walks might seem one of the least compatible
with letter-writing; yet a very large bulk of his letters
(by no means mainly composed of editorial ones) has been
published, and there are no doubt many unpublished. There
have been different opinions as to their comparative rank as
letters,