my signs and
tokens, so positively insulting that I cannot recall it; the whole
winding up: "Add to all these an immense pomposity of tone, with a lisp,
and a Dublin accent, and you can scarcely mistake him." Need I say,
benevolent reader, that fouler calumnies were never uttered, nor more
unfounded slanders ever pronounced?

It is not in this age of photography that a man need defend his
appearance. By the aid of sun and collodion, I may, perhaps, one
day convince you that I am not so devoid of personal graces as this
foul-mouthed priest would persuade you. I am, possibly, in this pledge,
exceeding the exact limits which this publication may enable me to
sustain. I may be contracting an engagement which cannot be, consistent
with its principles, fulfilled. If so, I must be your artist; but I
swear to you, that I shall not flatter. Potto, painted by himself, shall
be a true portrait. Meanwhile I have time to look out for my canvas, and
you will be patient enough to wait till it be filled.

Again to this confounded letter:--

"There is another reason" (wrote Dyke ) "why I should like to-chance
upon this fellow." ("This fellow" meant me.) "I used to fancy myself
unequalled in the imaginative department of conversation, by the vulgar
called lying. Here, I own, with some shame, he was my match. A more
fearless, determined, go-ahead liar, I never met. Now, as one who deems
himself no small proficient in the art, I would really like to meet
him once more. We could approach each other like the augurs of old, and
agree to be candid and free-spoken together, exchanging our ideas on
this great topic, and frankly communicating any secret knowledge each
might deem that he possessed. I'd go a hundred miles to pass an evening
with him alone, to hear from his own lips the sort of early training and
discipline his mind went through,--who were his first instructors,
what his original inducements. Of one thing I feel certain: a man
thus constituted has only to put the curb upon his faculty to be most
successful in life, his perils will all lie in the exuberance of
his resources; let him simply bend himself to believe in some of the
impositions he would force upon others. Let him give his delusions the
force acquired by convictions, and there is no limit to what he may
become. Be on the lookout, therefore, for him, as a great psychological
phenomenon, the man who outlied

"Your sincerely attached friend,

"Thomas Darcy Dyke.

"P.