indifference, disgust, disapprobation--in all cases it is aggressive;
but this 'humph' seemed to be a combination of at least three of the
above-mentioned frames of mind.

Natural indignation was about taking full possession of me, but
reflection stepped in, and I preserved a discreet silence. The truth is,
no man should be assailed by a new idea before he has dined, and I,
having had three years' opportunity of studying man nature, met my
deserts when the above answer was given. So I still looked amiable, and
behaved very prettily till dinner was over, and then John, having
subsided into dressing gown, slippers, easy chair, and good nature, I
remarked again:

'John, I think of writing an article for THE CONTINENTAL
MONTHLY.'

'How shall you begin it?' said he.

'Well, I haven't exactly settled on a beginning yet, but--'

'Exactly! I supposed so!' remarked this barbarian.

Unfortunately, he knew my weak point, for hadn't he been allowed to see
a desk full of magnificent middles, only wanting a beginning and an end,
and a publisher, and some readers, to place me in the front ranks of our
modern essayists, side by side with 'Spare Hours,' and the 'Country
Parson,' and 'Gail Hamilton?'

The fact is, I have always been brimming over with brilliant ideas on
all sorts of subjects, which never would arrange themselves or be
arranged under any given head, but presented a series of remarkable
literary fragments, jotted down on stray bits of paper, in old account
books and diaries, and even, on one or two occasions, when seized by a
sudden inspiration, on a smooth stone, taken from the brook, a fair
sheet of birch bark, and the front of a pew in a white-painted country
church. Having been subject to these inspirational attacks for many
years, I had decided to take them in hand, and, if they must come,
derive some benefit from them. An idea suggested itself. Claude
Lorraine, it is said, never put the figures in his landscapes, but left
that work for some brother artist. Now I could bring together material
for an article; the inspiration, the picturing should be mine, but John
should put in the figures. In other words, he should polish it, write
the introduction and the _finis_, and send it out to the public, as the
work of 'my wife and I.'

Then a question occurred: how should we divide the honors, supposing
such an article should really find its way into print? Would there not
be material for a standard quarrel in the