How does he bear his years, the old Trojan?
And how does his wife use him?
Ah, that was a mistake, Piers; that was a mistake.

In marriage--and remember this, Piers, for your time'll come--it must be the best, or none at all.

I acted upon that, though Heaven knows the trials and temptations I went through.

I said to myself--the best or none! And I found her, Piers; I found her sitting at a cottage door by Enniscorthy, County Wexford, where for a time I had the honour of acting as tutor to a young gentleman of promise, cut short, alas!--'the blind Fury with the abhorred shears!' I wrote an elegy on him, which I'll show you.

His father admired it, had it printed, and gave me twenty pounds, like the gentleman he was!" There appeared a handsome tea-service; the only objection to it being that every piece was chipped or cracked, and not one thoroughly clean.
Leonora, a well-behaved little creature who gave earnest of a striking face, sat on her mother's lap, watching the visitor and plainly afraid of him.
"Well," exclaimed Mrs.Otway, "I should never have taken you two for brothers--no, not even the half of it!" "He has an intellectual face, Biddy," observed her husband.