s tawny mother had not known
her son. This alteration, however, was not owing to change of dress; it
was the result of the punishment he had received at the "_set-to_" at
the priory. Not a feature was in its place; his swollen lip trespassed
upon the precincts of his nose; his nose trod hard upon his cheek; while
his cheek again, not to be behind the rest, rose up like an
apple-dumpling under his single eye,--single, we say--for, alas! there
was no speculation in the other. His dexter daylight was utterly
darkened, and, indeed, the orb that remained was as sanguinary a
luminary as ever struggled through a London fog at noonday. To borrow a
couplet or so from the laureate of the _Fancy_:

--------One of his peepers was put
On the bankruptcy list, with his shop windows shut,
While the other made nearly as tag-rag a show,
All rimmed round with black like the _Courier_ in woe.

One black patch decorated his rainbow-colored cheek; another adorned his
chin; a grinder having been dislodged, his pipe took possession of the
aperture. His toggery was that of a member of the prize-ring; what we
now call a "belcher" bound his throat; a spotted _fogle_ bandaged his
_jobbernowl_, and shaded his right peeper, while a white beaver crowned
the occiput of the Magus. And though, at first sight, there would appear
to be some incongruity in the association of such a battered character
as the Upright Man with his smart companions, the reader's wonder will
rapidly diminish, when he reflects that any distinguished P. C. man can
ever find a ready passport to the most exclusive society. Viewed in this
light, Zoroaster's familiarity with his _swell_ acquaintance occasioned
no surprise to old Simon Carr, the bottle-nosed landlord of the
Falstaff, who was a man of discernment in his way, and knew a thing or
two. Despite such striking evidences to the contrary, the Magus was
perfectly at his ease, and sacrificing as usual to the god of flame. His
mithra, or pipe, the symbol of his faith, was zealously placed between
his lips, and never did his Chaldean, Bactrian, Persian, Pamphylian,
Proconnesian, or Babylonian namesake, whichever of the six was the true
Zoroaster--_vide_ Bayle,--respire more fervently at the altar of fire,
than our Magus at the end of his enkindled tube. In his creed we believe
Zoroaster was a dualist, and believed in the co-existence and mystical
relation of the principles of good and ill; his pipe being his Yezda