An ingenious one, is it not?
My father had the good sense to adopt it.

It's a pity that his example is not followed by all the lawyers and merchants in London." In spite of the spattering of Harrison's pen, which told me as plainly as words could have done, that he was highly amused at the scene, I felt irritated at Theophilus joking about a circumstance which, to me, was a great privation and annoyance.
"If _you_ had a seat in this office, Mr.Theophilus," said I, laying a strong stress upon the personal pronoun, "you would, I am certain, take good care to keep a peep-hole, well-glazed, for your own convenience." "If I were in the office," he replied, with one of his sidelong, satirical glances, "I should have too much to do in keeping the clerks at work and in their places, to have much time for looking out of the window.

My father would do well to hire an overseer for _idle_ hands." Harrison's tremulous fit increased, while I was burning with indignation, and rose passionately from my seat.
"Geoffrey"-- pronounced in an undertone, restrained me from committing an act of violence.

I resumed my stool, muttering audibly between my teeth-- "Contemptible puppy!" I was quite ready for a quarrel, but Theophilus, contrary to my expectations, did not choose to take any notice of my imprudent speech.
Not that he wanted personal courage.

Like the wasp, he could, when unprovoked, attack others, and sting with tenfold malice when he felt or fancied an affront.