His manner was unusually gay; his smile more placid and agreeable than usual; his voice more clear and pleasant.

He laid down the newspaper he had been reading; leaned back upon his pillow with the air of one who resigned himself to a train of charming recollections; and after a pause, soliloquised as follows: 'And my friend the centaur, goes the way of his mamma! I am not surprised.

And his mysterious friend Mr Dennis, likewise! I am not surprised.

And my old postman, the exceedingly free-and-easy young madman of Chigwell! I am quite rejoiced.

It's the very best thing that could possibly happen to him.' After delivering himself of these remarks, he fell again into his smiling train of reflection; from which he roused himself at length to finish his chocolate, which was getting cold, and ring the bell for more.
The new supply arriving, he took the cup from his servant's hand; and saying, with a charming affability, 'I am obliged to you, Peak,' dismissed him.
'It is a remarkable circumstance,' he mused, dallying lazily with the teaspoon, 'that my friend the madman should have been within an ace of escaping, on his trial; and it was a good stroke of chance (or, as the world would say, a providential occurrence) that the brother of my Lord Mayor should have been in court, with other country justices, into whose very dense heads curiosity had penetrated.