to stand. A game's all very well, but bread and cheese is a deal
better."

"I love to see beauty enjoying itself gracefully. My idea of a woman
is incompatible with the hard work of the world. I would fain do that
myself, so that she should ever be lovely."

"But she won't be lovely a bit the more. She'll grow old all the
same, and take to drink very like. When she's got a red nose and a
pimply face, and a sharp tongue, you'd be glad enough to see her at
the wash-tub then. I remember an old song as my father used to sing,
but my mother couldn't endure to hear it.

Woman takes delight in abundance of pleasure,
But a man's life is to labour and toil.

That's about the truth of it, and that's what comes of your Halls of
Harmony."

"You would like woman to be a household drudge."

"So I would,--only drudge don't sound well. Call her a ministering
angel instead, and it comes to the same thing. They both of 'em
means much of a muchness;--getting up your linen decent, and seeing
that you have a bit of something hot when you come home late. Well,
good-night, old fellow. I shall have my hair combed if I stay much
longer. Take my advice, and as you mean to do it, do it at once. And
don't let the old 'un nobble all the money. Live and let live. That's
fair play all over." And so Mr. Poppins took his leave.

Had anybody suggested to George Robinson that he should go to Poppins
for advice as to his course of life, George Robinson would have
scorned the suggestion. He knew very well the great difference
between him and his humble friend, both as regarded worldly position
and intellectual attainments. But, nevertheless, there was a strain
of wisdom in Poppins' remarks which, though it appertained wholly to
matters of low import, he did not disdain to use. It was true that
Maryanne Brown still frequented the Hall of Harmony, and went there
quite as often without her betrothed as with him. It was true that
Mr. Brown had adopted a habit of using the money of the firm, without
rendering a fair account of the purpose to which he applied it.
The Hall of Harmony might not be the best preparation for domestic
duties, nor Mr. Brown's method of applying the funds the best
specific for commercial success. He would look to both these things,
and see that some reform were made. Indeed, he would reform them both
entirely by insisting on a division of the profits, and by taking
Maryanne to his own bosom. Great ideas filled his mi