'

'Tottle, will you assist Miss Lillerton, and pass the decanter. Thank
you.' (The usual pantomimic ceremony of nodding and sipping gone
through)--

'Tottle, were you ever in Suffolk?' inquired the master of the house, who
was burning to tell one of his seven stock stories.

'No,' responded Watkins, adding, by way of a saving clause, 'but I've
been in Devonshire.'

'Ah!' replied Gabriel, 'it was in Suffolk that a rather singular
circumstance happened to me many years ago. Did you ever happen to hear
me mention it?'

Mr. Watkins Tottle _had_ happened to hear his friend mention it some four
hundred times. Of course he expressed great curiosity, and evinced the
utmost impatience to hear the story again. Mr. Gabriel Parsons forthwith
attempted to proceed, in spite of the interruptions to which, as our
readers must frequently have observed, the master of the house is often
exposed in such cases. We will attempt to give them an idea of our
meaning.

'When I was in Suffolk--' said Mr. Gabriel Parsons.

'Take off the fowls first, Martha,' said Mrs. Parsons. 'I beg your
pardon, my dear.'

'When I was in Suffolk,' resumed Mr. Parsons, with an impatient glance at
his wife, who pretended not to observe it, 'which is now years ago,
business led me to the town of Bury St. Edmund's. I had to stop at the
principal places in my way, and therefore, for the sake of convenience, I
travelled in a gig. I left Sudbury one dark night--it was winter
time--about nine o'clock; the rain poured in torrents, the wind howled
among the trees that skirted the roadside, and I was obliged to proceed
at a foot-pace, for I could hardly see my hand before me, it was so
dark--'

'John,' interrupted Mrs. Parsons, in a low, hollow voice, 'don't spill
that gravy.'

'Fanny,' said Parsons impatiently, 'I wish you'd defer these domestic
reproofs to some more suitable time. Really, my dear, these constant
interruptions are very annoying.'

'My dear, I didn't interrupt you,' said Mrs. Parsons.

'But, my dear, you _did_ interrupt me,' remonstrated Mr. Parsons.

'How very absurd you are, my love! I must give directions to the
servants; I am quite sure that if I sat here and allowed John to spill
the gravy over the new carpet, you'd be the first to find fault when you
saw the stain to-morrow morning.'

'Well,' continued Gabriel with a resigned air, as if he knew there was no
getting over the point about the carpet, 'I was just saying, it