d
she thought, perhaps, that if he laughed any more he would be only so
much the fatter.

She therefore put into his hands the most sentimental exotics of the
publishing firms. There was the 'Elegant Maniac; or, the Snuff-coloured
Rose and the Field of Silver,' a beautiful romance. Then there was the
'Sentimental Footpad; or, Honour among Thieves.' And 'Syngenesia,' the
last of the melancholies; with the 'Knight of the Snorting Palfrey; or,
the Silken Fetlock.' These works she read to Mr. Mumbles on evenings
instead of suffering him to repair to his bowls, and after a short time
had the satisfaction to find him a ready and an eager listener. She read
and read and read, and he became more and more interested, till at last
he could scarcely find time to serve a customer if one happened to come
in when the hero was in some 'interesting situation.'

And so Mr. Mumbles began to find his business decline, for at last he
would have his novel in his hand on a Saturday night, and would ask his
customers concerning this or that book, which he happened to have been
reading during the week. He would forget to joint the loins of mutton,
to pickle the stale beef, to send out his orders; in short, his
customers were treated with such neglect that his trade, long
vacillating between going on and going off, suddenly stopped.

Nor did Mr. Mumbles care a whit for it, as he was rich when his father
died, had grown richer since, and was worth at least ten thousand pounds
in houses, lands, and money. He would soon have given up his business
had it not given up him, and therefore when somebody told him it was
time to 'shut up shop,' he said: 'Yes, and I intend to do it.'

Suiting the action to the word he forthwith began to retire. All the
beasts and beastesses were sold off with the goodwill of the shop, the
blocks, cleavers, hooks, and jemmies. And Mr. Mumbles planned out a
house in a secluded spot about a mile from the town. It was to be called
Mumbles Castle, and was to be built in the old English or baronial
style, with turrets, low doors, battlements, arch windows, and gothic
mouldings. The grand hall was twenty feet by fifteen, the armoury half
the size, the refectory fourteen by fourteen. A long passage leading to
the adjacent pigsties was called the corridor, and the bedchambers, four
in number, were dignified with the names of the griffin room, the
martlet, the rampant lion, and the wild boar, such being a part of the
newly-form