"nightingale tones of
her voice in singing;" but as he was walking home from the party with
Miss Nance, he said to her (of course in the absence of Miss Stokoe)
that "_Miss Stokoe, after all that is said in her praise, is no more
than an ordinary pianist and singer_."

"That was a most excellent sermon you gave us this morning," said Mr.
Clarke to the Rev. T. Ross, as he was dining with him at his house. "I
hope it will not be long before you visit us again."

"I am obliged for your compliment," replied Mr. Ross.

A day or two after Mr. Clarke was heard to say that he had never
listened to such "_a dull sermon, and he hoped it would be a long time
ere the reverend gentleman appeared in their pulpit again_."

"What darling little cherubs your twins are," said Mrs. Horton to Mrs.
Shenstone in an afternoon gathering of ladies at her house. "I really
should be proud of them if they were mine: such lovely eyes, such rosy
cheeks, such beautiful hair, and withal such sweet expressions of the
countenance! And then, how tastily they are dressed! Dear darlings! come
and kiss me."

Mrs. Shenstone smiled complacently in return; and shortly after retired
from the room, when the two "little cherubs" approached their prodigious
admirer, with a view to make friends and impress upon her the solicited
kiss. She instantly put them at arm's length from her, saying to Mrs.
Teague, who sat next her, "_What pests these little things are, treading
on my dress, and obtruding their presence on me like this. I do wish
Mrs. Shenstone had taken them out of the room with her_."

"I am deeply grieved to learn," said Farmer Shirley one day to his
neighbour, Farmer Stout, "that your circumstances are such as they are.
Now, if you think I can help you in any way, do not be backward in
sending to me. You shall always find a friend in me."

That very afternoon this same farmer Shirley was heard to say in a
company of farmers at the "Queen's Head" that Stout had brought all his
difficulties upon himself, and _he was not sorry for him a bit_. The
next day Stout availed himself of the "great kindness" offered him by
Shirley, and sent to ask the loan of a pound to pay the baker's bill, in
order to keep the "staff of life" in the house for his family; when
Shirley sent word back to him that he had "no pounds to lend anybody,
much less one _who had by his own extravagance brought himself into such
difficult circumstances_."

This double-tongued talker