There were two red-letter days: one when I first bought the two volumes of Herrick, the second when I tumbled upon De Quincey.

That's the author to bowl a boy over.

The Stage-Coach, the Autobiography, the Confessions--I could never get tired of them.

I remember buying an ounce of laudanum at a chemist's on London Bridge and taking it home, with the intention of following in the steps of my hero and qualifying to drink it out of a decanter." Stella Croyle had swung round from the fireplace, and was listening now with parted lips.
"And did you ?" she exclaimed, in a kind of eager suspense.
Hillyard shook his head.
"The taste was too unpleasant.

I drank about half an ounce and threw the rest away.