on was caught by most of the lively little group
of Londoners in whose fortunes we are interested. Mr. Gammon threw
himself with mirthful ardour into a competition which might prove so
lucrative. Mr. Greenacre gave part of his supple mind to this new
branch of detective energy. The newly-wedded pair, Mr. and Mrs. Nibby,
ceased from the wrangling that follows upon a honeymoon, and incited
each other to a more profitable contest. The Parish household devoted
every possible moment with native earnestness to the choice and the
weighing of vocables. Polly Sparkes, unable to get upon the track of
her missing uncle, abandoned her fiery intelligence to the missing
word. The Cheeseman couple, Mrs. Bubb, nay, even Moggie the general,
dared verbal conjecture and risked postage stamps. Only in a certain
china shop near Battersea Park Road was the tumult unregarded, for Mrs.
Clover had fallen from her wonted health, her happy temper, and Minnie
in good truth cared neither for the recreation nor the dangled prize.

When Gammon and Polly met they talked no longer of Lord Polperro or
Uncle Clover, but of words.

"I've got it this time, Polly! I swear I've got it! 'Undeserved
misfortune is often a--to the noble mind.' Why, it's _stimulus_, of
course!"

"I never heard the word," declared Polly. "I'm sending in _stroke_."

"_Stroke_? What do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean by it? Why, what they want to say is, that 'Undeserved
misfortune is often a _blow_ to the noble mind,' don't they? But _blow_
can't be the word, 'cause everybody'd get it. The dictionary gives
_stroke_ for _blow_, and I'm sure that's it."

"Rot! they don't mean to say that at all! It ain't a _blow_ to the
noble mind, it's just the opposite; that's what _they_ mean."

"How can it be the opposyte?" shrilled Polly. "Ain't it a knock-down if
you get what you don't deserve?"

"I tell you _they_ don't mean that. Can't you understand? Why, it's as
plain as the nose on your face."

"Is it?" retorted Polly with indignation. "If I've got a plain nose,
why didn't you tell me so before? If that's your way of talking to a
lady--"

"Don't be a fool, Polly! It's a saying, ain't it?"

And they parted as usual, in dudgeon on both sides, which was not
soothed when both found themselves wrong in the literary contest; for
the missing word this week, discovered by an East-end licensed
victualler, was _pick-me-up_.

Public opinion found fault with this editorial English.