, to my taste," said my mother, "the novels I used to read when a
girl (for I have not read many since, I am ashamed to say),--"

_Mr. Caxton._--"No, you need not be at all ashamed of it, Kitty."

_My Mother_, proceeding.--"Were much more inviting than any you mention,
Austin."

_The Captain._--"True."

_Mr. Squills._--"Certainly. Nothing like them now-a-days!"

_My Mother._--"_'Says she to her Neighbor, What?'_"

_The Captain._-"_'The Unknown, or the Northern Gallery'_--"

_Mr. Squills._--"_'There is a Secret; Find it Out!'_"

_Pisistratus_, pushed to the verge of human endurance, and upsetting
tongs, poker, and fire-shovel.--"What nonsense you are talking, all of
you! For heaven's sake, consider what an important matter we are called
upon to decide. It is not now the titles of those very respectable works
which issued from the Minerva Press that I ask you to remember--it is to
invent a title for mine--My Novel!"

_Mr. Caxton_, clapping his hands gently.--"Excellent--capital! Nothing
can be better; simple, natural, pertinent, concise--"

_Pisistratus._--"What is it, sir--what is it! Have you really thought of
a title to My Novel?"

_Mr. Caxton._--"You have hit it yourself--'My Novel.' It is your
Novel--people will know it is your Novel. Turn and twist the English
language as you will--be as allegorical as Hebrew, Greek,
Roman--Fabulist or Puritan--still, after all, it is your Novel, and
nothing more nor less than your Novel."

_Pisistratus_, thoughtfully, and sounding the words various ways.--"'My
Novel'--um--um! 'My Novel!' rather bald--and curt, eh?"

_Mr. Caxton._--"Add what you say you intend it to depict--Varieties in
English Life."

_My Mother._--"_'My Novel; or, Varieties in English Life'_--I don't
think it sounds amiss. What say you, Roland? Would it attract you in a
catalogue?"

My Uncle hesitates, when Mr. Caxton exclaims imperiously:

"The thing is settled! Don't disturb Camarina."

_Squills._--"If it be not too great a liberty, pray who or what is
Camarina?"

_Mr. Caxton._--"Camarina, Mr. Squills, was a lake, apt to be low, and
then liable to be muddy; and 'Don't disturb Camarina' was a Greek
proverb derived from an Oracle of Apollo; and from that Greek proverb,
no doubt, comes the origin of the injunction, '_Quieta non movere_,'
which became the favorite maxim of Sir Robert Walpole and Parson Dale.
The Greek line, Mr. Squills (here my father's memory began to warm), is
preserved by _