d the room,
humming a tune, as he wrote the letter that was to present me to his
brother.

"Why had I never hit upon this plan before?" thought I. "How was it that
it had not occurred that the maxim of homoeopathy is equally true in
morals as in medicine, and that _similia similibus curantur!_ So long
as I was meek, humble, and submissive, Buller's impertinent presumption
only increased at every moment With every fresh concession of mine he
continued to encroach, and now that I had adopted his own strategy,
and attacked, he fell back at once." I was proud, very proud of my
discovery. It is a new contribution to that knowledge of life which,
notwithstanding all my disasters, I believed to be essentially my gift.

At last he finished his note, folded, sealed, and directed it,--"The
Hon. George Buller, A.D.C., Government House, Malta, favored by Algernon
Sydney Potts, Esq."

"Is n't that all right?" asked he, pointing to my name. "I was within
an ace of writing Hampden-Russell too." And he laughed at his own very
meagre jest.

"I hope you have merely made this an introduction?" said I.

"Nothing more; but why so?"

"Because it's just as likely that I never present it! I am the slave of
the humor I find myself in, and I rarely do anything that costs me
the slightest effort." I said this with a close and, indeed, a servile
imitation of Charles Matthews in "Used Up;" but it was a grand success,
and Buller was palpably vanquished.

"Well, for George's sake, I hope your mood may be the favorable one. Is
there anything more I can do for you? Can you think of nothing wherein I
may be serviceable?"

"Nothing. Stay, I rather think our people at home might with propriety
show my old friend Hirsch here some mark of attention for his conduct
towards me. I don't know whether they give a C.B. for that sort of
thing, but a sum,--a handsome sum,--something to mark the service,
and the man to whom it was rendered. Don't you think 'we' could manage
that?"

"I 'll see what can be done. I don't despair of success."

"As for your share in the affair, Buller, I 'll take care that it shall
be mentioned in the proper quarter. If I _have_ a characteristic,--my
friends say I have many,--but if I have one, it is that I never forget
the most trifling service of the humblest of those who have aided me.
You are young, and have your way to make in life. Go back, therefore,
and carry with you the reflection that Potts is your friend."

I s