ey might not see her nose, of which they felt
ashamed. And they were quite right! Thin, soft, long, pendant, sallow,
and ending in a violet knob, it irresistibly reminded those who saw it
of something which cannot be mentioned except in a medical treatise. Her
body, through the inconceivable irony of nature, was at the same time
thin and flabby, wooden and chubby, without having either the elegance
of slimness or the rounded gracefulness of stoutness. It might have been
taken for a body which had formerly been adipose, but which had now
grown thin, while the covering had remained floating on the framework.

She was evidently nothing but skin and bones, but then she had too many
bones and too little skin.

It will be seen that the reverend gentleman had done his duty, his whole
duty, more than his duty, in sacrificing a dozen times on this altar.
Yes, a dozen times bravely and loyally! A dozen times, and his wife
could not deny it nor dispute the number, because the children were
there to prove it. A dozen times, and not one less!

And alas! not once more; and that was the reason why, in spite of
appearances, Mrs. Anna Greenfield ventured to think, in the depths of
her heart, that the Reverend William Greenfield, Vicar of St. Sampson's,
Tottenham, had not made her perfectly happy; and she thought so all the
more as, for four years now, she had been obliged to renounce all hope
of that annual sacrifice, which was so easy and so fugitive formerly,
but which had now fallen into disuse. In fact, at the birth of the
twelfth child, the reverend gentleman had expressly said to her:

"God has greatly blessed our union, my dear Anna. We have reached the
sacred number of the twelve tribes of Israel, and were we now to
persevere in the works of the flesh, it would be mere debauchery, and I
cannot suppose that you would wish me to end my exemplary life in
lustful practices."

His wife blushed and looked down, and the holy man, with the legitimate
pride of virtue which is its own reward, audibly thanked Heaven that he
was "not as other men are."

A model among wives and the paragon of mothers, Anna lived with him for
four years on those terms, without complaining to anyone, and contented
herself by praying fervently to God that He would mercifully inspire her
husband with the desire to begin a second series of the twelve tribes.
At times even, in order to make her prayers more efficacious, she tried
to compass that end by culin