this he emptied the ashes of his pipe, and
gazed sorrowfully at the empty bowl.

'Now, if I were the son of some good house, with a high-sounding name, and
well-to-do relations, I'd soon bring them to terms if they dared to cast me
off. I'd turn milk or muffin man, and serve the street they lived in. I'd
sweep the crossing in front of their windows, or I'd commit a small theft,
and call on my high connections for a character--but being who and what I
am, I might do any or all o these, and shock nobody.

'Next to take stock of my effects. Let me see what my assets will bring
when reduced to cash, for this time it shall be a sale.' And he turned to a
table where paper and pens were lying, and proceeded to write. 'Personal,
sworn under, let us say, ten thousand pounds. Literature first. To divers
worn copies of _Virgil_, _Tacitus_, _Juvenal_, and _Ovid_, Caesar's
_Commentaries_, and _Catullus_; to ditto ditto of _Homer_, _Lucian_,
_Aristophanes_, _Balzac_, _Anacreon_, Bacon's _Essays_, and Moore's
_Melodies_; to Dwight's _Theology_--uncut copy, Heine's _Poems_--very much
thumbed, _Saint Simon_--very ragged, two volumes of _Les Causes Celebres_,
Tone's _Memoirs_, and Beranger's _Songs_; to Cuvier's _Comparative
Anatomy_, Shroeder on _Shakespeare_, Newman's _Apology_, Archbold's
_Criminal Law_ and _Songs of the Nation_; to Colenso, East's _Cases for
the Crown_, Carte's _Ormonde_, and _Pickwick_. But why go on? Let us call
it the small but well-selected library of a distressed gentleman, whose
cultivated mind is reflected in the marginal notes with which these volumes
abound. Will any gentleman say, "L10 for the lot"? Why the very criticisms
are worth--I mean to a man of literary tastes--five times the amount. No
offer at L10? Who is it that says "five"? I trust my ears have deceived me.
You repeat the insulting proposal? Well, sir, on your own head be it! Mr.
Atlee's library--or the Atlee collection is better--was yesterday disposed
of to a well-known collector of rare books, and, if we are rightly
informed, for a mere fraction of its value. Never mind, sir, I bear you no
ill-will! I was irritable, and to show you my honest animus in the matter,
I beg to present you in addition with this, a handsomely-bound and gilt
copy of a sermon by the Reverend Isaac Atlee, on the opening of the new
meeting-house in Coleraine--a discourse that cost my father some sleepless
nights, though I have heard the effect on the congregation was di