She presented a smiling face to the world; she said: "If I'm as happy as can be expected in the circumstances, I think it my duty to look happier." It was a valiant philosophy.
The falling of a chimney-stack brought me up against Daniel Gedge, who before the war did all my little repairs.

The chimney I put into the hands of Day & Higgins, another firm of builders.
A day or two afterwards Hosea shied at something and I discovered it was Gedge, who had advanced into the roadway expressing a desire to have a word with me.

I quieted the patriotic Hosea and drew up by the kerb.

Gedge was a lean foxy-faced man with a long, reddish nose and a long blunt chin from which a grizzled beard sprouted aggressively forwards.

He had hard, stupid grey eyes.
"I hope you 'll excuse the liberty I take in stopping you, sir," he said, civilly.
"That's all right," said I."What's the matter ?" "I thought I had given you satisfaction these last twenty years." I assented.