?"

"Oh, yes, Papa! certainly."

"There is--is there? Well, upon my honor and conscience, now, this is
the first time I've heard that argument used. Come, then, how do you
prove it--eh?"

"There is perfection, papa, occasionally at least, to be found
among women, and--you certainly, sir, cannot deny the truth of
this--occasionally, too, among magistrates--ha ha! ha!"

"Ah! Kate, I know you of old! Very good that--extremely good, upon my
word However, as I was saying, if you don't act and think as the world
about you acts and thinks, you had as good, as I said, get a betther one
if you can. Here, now, I see Mat Purcel coming up the avenue; and as
I want to have some private conversation with him, I must be off to
my office, where I desire you to send him to me. There's a time for
everything, they say, and a place for everything--I hope, Fergy, you and
I will have occasion, before long, to say, a place for some--ha! ha! ha!
Well, as I said, there's a place for everything! and I don't think it
would become me to spake upon official business anywhere but in my own
office. We must not only do our business properly, but look like it."

Purcel found our pompous little man enveloped, as we have already said,
in a most fashionable morning-gown and embroidered slippers, and at the
same time busily engaged in writing.

"How do you do, Mr. Purcel?" said he; "will you excuse me for about
three minutes, till I finish this paragraph, after which I am at your
service?"

"Certainly," said Purcel, "I'm in no hurry, Fitzy, my boy."

"Here," continued the other, "amuse yourself with that paper. By the
way, there's a flattering notice there of your humble servant, by our
friend Swiggerly, who certainly is a man of sound judgment and ability."

"I won't interrupt you now," replied the proctor; "but I will tell you
my opinion of him by and by."

The magistrate then proceeded to finish his paragraph, as he said, by
his important manner of doing which, Purcel, who thoroughly understood
him, was much amused. He frequently paused for instance, placed his chin
in the end of his half-closed hand, somewhat like an egg in an egg-cup,
looked in a meditative mood into Purcel's face, without appearing to see
him at all; then went over to the library, which ought rather to have
been pronounced his son's than his; and after having consulted a book--a
Latin Horace, which by the way he opened at the art of poetry, of which
volume it is, we presu