nd you couldn't
understand it."

"Why, of course, I understand _that_. Why didn't you say so before?"

"As far as I remember, those were my precise words."

"But they weren't! What you said was, 'If neither of us was fonder of
both than each is of either, which of the two would it be?' or
something of the kind."

"Now, how could I talk such absolute nonsense?"

"Ah!" she said; "when men lose their temper they never know what
they're saying!"

I had a very good answer to that, but just at the moment the girl
brought in the last post. There was a letter from Eliza's mother. There
was also an enclosure in postal orders quite beyond anything I had
expected, and she expressed a hope that they might enable us "to defray
some of the expenses incidental to the season." As far as my own
personal feeling is concerned, I should have returned them at once. In
some ways I daresay that I am a proud man. I have been told so. But the
poor old lady takes such pleasure in giving, and she has so little
other enjoyment, that I should have been reluctant to check her. In
fact, taking the money as evidence of her affection, I was pleased. So
was Eliza.

"Pay Griffiths's twopenny-halfpenny account to-morrow," I said, "and
tell him that he has lost our patronage for ever."

* * * * *

We did not recur to the original question. Personally, I should say
that in the case of two people it might very well happen that, though
at one time the affection of one for the other might be greater than
the affection which the other had for the one which I originally
mentioned at the same time, yet at some other time the affection which
the other one had for the other might be just as much greater than the
affection which the first one had for the second, as the difference was
in the first instance between the two. At least, that is the general
drift of what I mean. Eliza would never see it, of course.

THE DAY OFF

On the occasion of the marriage of our junior partner to Ethel Mary,
only surviving daughter of William Hubblestead, Esq., J.P., of
Banlingbury, by the Canon of Blockminster, assisted by the Rev. Eugene
Hubblestead, cousin of the bride--on this occasion the office was
closed for the whole of one day, and the staff had a holiday without
deduction of salary.

The staff had presented six silver (hallmarked) nutcrackers, and a
handsomely bound volume of Cowper's Poetical Works. The latte