y word, and courted his favourable notice; how
people, who really had good in them, went with the stream, and fawned
and flattered, and approved, and despised themselves while they did
so, and yet had not the courage to resist; how, in short, he was one of
those who are received and cherished in society (as the phrase is) by
scores who individually would shrink from and be repelled by the
object of their lavish regard; are things of course, which will suggest
themselves. Matter so commonplace needs but a passing glance, and there
an end.

The despisers of mankind--apart from the mere fools and mimics, of that
creed--are of two sorts. They who believe their merit neglected and
unappreciated, make up one class; they who receive adulation and
flattery, knowing their own worthlessness, compose the other. Be sure
that the coldest-hearted misanthropes are ever of this last order.

Mr Chester sat up in bed next morning, sipping his coffee, and
remembering with a kind of contemptuous satisfaction how he had shone
last night, and how he had been caressed and courted, when his servant
brought in a very small scrap of dirty paper, tightly sealed in two
places, on the inside whereof was inscribed in pretty large text these
words: 'A friend. Desiring of a conference. Immediate. Private. Burn it
when you've read it.'

'Where in the name of the Gunpowder Plot did you pick up this?' said his
master.

It was given him by a person then waiting at the door, the man replied.

'With a cloak and dagger?' said Mr Chester.

With nothing more threatening about him, it appeared, than a leather
apron and a dirty face. 'Let him come in.' In he came--Mr Tappertit;
with his hair still on end, and a great lock in his hand, which he put
down on the floor in the middle of the chamber as if he were about to go
through some performances in which it was a necessary agent.

'Sir,' said Mr Tappertit with a low bow, 'I thank you for this
condescension, and am glad to see you. Pardon the menial office in which
I am engaged, sir, and extend your sympathies to one, who, humble as his
appearance is, has inn'ard workings far above his station.'

Mr Chester held the bed-curtain farther back, and looked at him with a
vague impression that he was some maniac, who had not only broken open
the door of his place of confinement, but had brought away the lock. Mr
Tappertit bowed again, and displayed his legs to the best advantage.

'You have heard, sir,' said M