n me a week later.

"You remember that tea I gave you?" he said.

"Distinctly," I answered; "I've got the taste of it in my mouth now."

"Did it upset you?" he asked.

"It annoyed me at the time," I answered; "but that's all over now."

He seemed thoughtful. "You were quite correct," he answered; "it WAS
snuff, a very special snuff, sent me all the way from India."

"I can't say I liked it," I replied.

"A stupid mistake of mine," he went on--"I must have mixed up the
packets!"

"Oh, accidents will happen," I said, "and you won't make another
mistake, I feel sure; so far as I am concerned."

We can all give advice. I had the honour once of serving an old
gentleman whose profession it was to give legal advice, and excellent
legal advice he always gave. In common with most men who know the
law, he had little respect for it. I have heard him say to a would-be
litigant--

"My dear sir, if a villain stopped me in the street and demanded of me
my watch and chain, I should refuse to give it to him. If he thereupon
said, 'Then I shall take it from you by brute force,' I should, old as
I am, I feel convinced, reply to him, 'Come on.' But if, on the other
hand, he were to say to me, 'Very well, then I shall take proceedings
against you in the Court of Queen's Bench to compel you to give it up
to me,' I should at once take it from my pocket, press it into his hand,
and beg of him to say no more about the matter. And I should consider I
was getting off cheaply."

Yet that same old gentleman went to law himself with his next-door
neighbour over a dead poll parrot that wasn't worth sixpence to anybody,
and spent from first to last a hundred pounds, if he spent a penny.

"I know I'm a fool," he confessed. "I have no positive proof that it WAS
his cat; but I'll make him pay for calling me an Old Bailey Attorney,
hanged if I don't!"

We all know how the pudding OUGHT to be made. We do not profess to be
able to make it: that is not our business. Our business is to criticize
the cook. It seems our business to criticize so many things that it is
not our business to do. We are all critics nowadays. I have my opinion
of you, Reader, and you possibly have your own opinion of me. I do not
seek to know it; personally, I prefer the man who says what he has to
say of me behind my back. I remember, when on a lecturing tour, the
ground-plan of the hall often necessitated my mingling with the audience
as they streamed out. This never