But--_Virginibus puerisque!_ I was quite sure that Thackeray had not taken the trouble to read the story himself.

Some moral deputy had read it, and disapproving, no doubt properly, of the little project to which I have alluded, had incited the editor to use his authority.

That Thackeray had suffered when he wrote it was easy to see, fearing that he was giving pain to one he would fain have pleased.

I wrote him a long letter in return, as full of drollery as I knew how to make it.

In four or five days there came a reply in the same spirit,--boiling over with fun.