ssed with the notion that making a will
is a sure prelude to dying; so others there are who fancy that, by
the least effort on their own behalf, they are forecasting a state of
poverty in which they must actually work for subsistence.

How hopelessly, then, did he turn over costly waistcoats and embroidered
shirts, gaze on richly cut and crested essence-bottles and boot-boxes,
whose complexity resembled mathematical instruments! In what manner they
were ever conveyed so far he could not imagine. The room seemed actually
filled with them. It was Rivers had "put them up;" but Rivers could no
longer be trusted, for he was evidently in the "lay" against him.

He sighed heavily at this: it was a dreary, hopeless sigh over the
depravity of the world and mankind in general. "And what a paradise it
might be," he thought, "if people would only let themselves be cheated
quietly and peaceably, neither threatening with their solicitors, nor
menacing with the police. Heaven knew how little he asked for: a safe
thing now and then on the Derby, a good book on the Oaks; he wanted
no more! He bore no malice nor ill-will to any man breathing; he never
wished to push any fellow to the wall. If ever there was a generous
heart, it beat in _his_ bosom; and if the world only knew the
provocation he had received! No matter, he would never retaliate,--he 'd
die game, be a brick to the last;" and twenty other fine things of the
same sort that actually brought the tears to his own eyes over his own
goodness.

Goodness, however, will not pack a trunk, nor will moral qualities,
however transcendent, fold cravats and dress-coats, and he looked very
despondently around him, and thought over what he half fancied was the
only thing he could n't do. So accustomed had he been of late to seek
Lizzy Davis's counsel in every moment of difficulty, that actually,
without knowing it, he descended now to the drawing-room, some vague,
undefined feeling impelling him to be near her.

She was singing at the piano, all alone, as he entered; the room, as
usual, brilliantly lighted up as if to receive company, rare flowers and
rich plants grouped tastefully about, and "Daisy"--for she looked
that name on this occasion--in one of those charming "toilettes" whose
consummate skill it is to make the most costly articles harmonize into
something that seems simplicity itself. She wore a fuchsia in her
hair, and another--only this last was of coral and gold elaborately