y snarl.

'I 'eard you,' replied Uncle Solomon, calmly, 'that was why I spoke.
Come, come, 'Umpage, don't be nasty--we've been neighbours long enough
to drop nagging. It's no reason because I've got a nephew myself, who
knows his duty and tries to be a pride to an uncle who's behaved
handsomely towards him, it's no reason, I say, why I can't feel for
them that mayn't be able to say as much for themselves.'

'I'm much obliged,' said Mr. Humpage, 'but I don't ask you or anybody
else to feel for me. I am perfectly well able to do everything that's
necessary in that way for myself.'

'Oh, certainly,' was the retort, 'no one can say I ever intruded on
any one. I shan't take the liberty of feeling for you any more after
that, not if you had twenty nephews and all of 'em in the "Police
News," I promise you. And, talking of nephews, Mabel, I wonder if you
came across a letter I wrote to the "Chigbourne and Lamford Gazette,"
a week or so back--I meant to send you a copy, but I forgot--I
forgot.'

'No,' said Mabel, unable to make anything of this extraordinary
mildness, 'I didn't see it.'

'Didn't you now?' he rejoined complacently, 'and yet it got copied
into some of the London papers, too, I was told. Well, I brought a
cutting with me, in case--would you like to hear it?'

Mabel made some assent--she always felt more or less paralysed in the
presence of this terrible relative--and he drew out a folded slip, put
on his spectacles, and proceeded to read:--

'"To the Editor.--Sir--I write you for the purpose of
putting you right with respect to a point on which you
seem to have got hold of an unaccurate version of a
matter which I may say I have some slight connection
with. In your issue of the ----th inst., I note that your
London letter prints the following paragraph:

'"_Society here is eagerly anticipating the coming
performance, at one of the most recherche mansions in
Belgravia, of a dramatic version of Mrs. Ashburn (nee
Ernstone's) celebrated romance of 'Illusion.' I have been
favoured with an opportunity of assisting at some of the
rehearsals, and am in a position to state that the
representation cannot fail to satisfy even the most
ardent of the many admirers of the book. The guests will
include all the leaders of every phase of the beau monde,
and a repetition of the play will probably be found
necessary. By the way, it is a somewhat romantic
circumstance