m again brought under his eye.]

I was for several years a frequent contributor to _Household Words_,
my contributions for the most part consisting of what I considered
tit-bits from the byways of Italian history, which the persevering
plough of my reading turned up from time to time.

In one case I remember the article was sent "to order," I was dining
with him after I had just had all the remaining hairs on my head made
to stand on end by the perusal of the officially published _Manual for
Confessors_, as approved by superior authority for the dioceses of
Tuscany. I was full of the subject, and made, I fancy, the hairs of
some who sat at table with me stand on end also. Dickens said, with
nailing forefinger levelled at me, "Give us that for _Household
Words_. Give it us just as you have now been telling it to us"--which
I accordingly did. Whether the publication of that article was in
anywise connected with the fact that when I wished to purchase a
second copy of that most extraordinary work I was told that it was out
of print, and not to be had, I do not know. Of course it was kept as
continually in print as the _Latin Grammar_, for the constant use of
the class for whom it was provided, and who most assuredly could not
have found their way safely through the wonderful intricacies of the
Confessional without it. And equally, of course, the publishers of
so largely-circulated a work did not succeed in preventing me from
obtaining a second copy of it.

Many of the letters addressed to me by Dickens concerned more or less
my contributions to his periodical, and many more are not of a nature
to interest the public even though they came from him. But I may give
a few extracts from three or four of them.[1]

[Footnote 1: I wish it to be observed that any letters, or parts of
letters, from Dickens here printed are published with the permission
and authorisation of his sister-in-law, Miss Georgina Hogarth.]

Here is a passage from a letter dated 3rd December, 1861, which my
vanity will not let me suppress.

"Yes; the Christmas number _was_ intended as a conveyance of all
friendly greetings in season and out of season. As to its lesson, you
need it almost as little as any man I know; for all your study and
seclusion conduce to the general good, and disseminate truths that men
cannot too earnestly take to heart. Yes, a capital story that of 'The
Two Seaborn Babbies,' and wonderfully droll, I think. I may say so
without