risms
was this, "A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the
day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to
consider it when it becomes to-day."

Preserving himself by attention to these rules, Mr. Mivers appeared at
Exmundham _totus, teres_, but not _rotundus_,--a man of middle height,
slender, upright, with well-cut, small, slight features, thin lips,
enclosing an excellent set of teeth, even, white, and not indebted
to the dentist. For the sake of those teeth he shunned acid wines,
especially hock in all its varieties, culinary sweets, and hot drinks.
He drank even his tea cold.

"There are," he said, "two things in life that a sage must preserve at
every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth.
Some evils admit of consolations: there are no comforters for dyspepsia
and toothache." A man of letters, but a man of the world, he had so
cultivated his mind as both that he was feared as the one and liked as
the other. As a man of letters he despised the world; as a man of the
world he despised letters. As the representative of both he revered
himself.

CHAPTER IX.

ON the evening of the third day from the arrival of Mr. Mivers, he, the
Parson, and Sir Peter were seated in the host's parlour, the Parson in
an armchair by the ingle, smoking a short cutty-pipe; Mivers at length
on the couch, slowly inhaling the perfumes of one of his own choice
_trabucos_. Sir Peter never smoked. There were spirits and hot water and
lemons on the table. The Parson was famed for skill in the composition
of toddy. From time to time the Parson sipped his glass, and Sir Peter
less frequently did the same. It is needless to say that Mr. Mivers
eschewed toddy; but beside him, on a chair, was a tumbler and a large
carafe of iced water.

SIR PETER.--"Cousin Mivers, you have now had time to study Kenelm,
and to compare his character with that assigned to him in the Doctor's
letter."

MIVERS (languidly).--"Ay."

SIR PETER.--"I ask you, as a man of the world, what you think I had
best do with the boy. Shall I send him to such a tutor as the Doctor
suggests? Cousin John is not of the same mind as the Doctor, and thinks
that Kenelm's oddities are fine things in their way, and should not be
prematurely ground out of him by contact with worldly tutors and London
pavements."

"Ay," repeated Mr. Mivers more languidly than before. After a pause he
added, "Parson John, let us hear you