ember of the Northern Circuit, and I believe was as popular
as his book. That he did not become a Judge, like several of his
friends, was not Sam's fault, for no man went more into society,
cultivated acquaintances of the best style, or had better
qualifications for the honour than he.

But although he did not achieve this distinction, he was made a little
lower than that order, and became in due time a _Master in Lunacy_, a
post, as it seemed from Sam's description, of the highest importance
and no little fun.

A part of his duties was to visit lunatic asylums and other places
where these patients were confined, with a view to report to the
authorities his opinion of the patients' mental condition. No doubt
to a man of Sam's observant mind this work presented many studies of
interest, as well as situations of excitement, and at times of no
little humour. He found, for instance, that many of these poor
creatures were possessed of a much larger income than ten thousand a
year. Some of them were Dukes and some supernatural beings, who were
just on a visit to this little clod of a world to see how things were
going.

Soon after his appointment, and before he had become used to the work,
he told me of a singular experience he once had with a particular
gentleman whom he was intending to report as having perfectly
recovered from any mental aberration with which he might have been
afflicted. Sam wondered how it was possible that a gentleman of such
culture and understanding should be considered a fit subject
for confinement, for he had several pleasant and intellectual
conversations with him, and found him quite agreeable and refined, and
of a perfectly balanced mind.

"I had been told," said the Master, "that the peculiar form of
derangement with this gentleman was that he had aspired to distinction
in the English Church; and on one memorable occasion when I called
he received me, not with the usual familiarity, but with a certain
stiffness and solemnity of bearing which was hardly in keeping with
his courteous demeanour on other occasions. One had to be on one's
guard at all times, or he might get a knife plunged into him without
notice. I chatted for some time in a kind and easy manner, hoping to
find that the mild restraint and discipline had done the poor fellow
good. Alas! how deceived I was, when, in a sudden rage, he turned upon
me, and asked _who the devil I thought I was talking to_?"

"I told him a gentleman