"You're enough to give a man apoplexy." "You're not going back on the ladder by which you have climbed, are you, Samuel ?" queried Boswell, earnestly.
"The wha-a-t ?" cried the Doctor, angrily.

"The ladder--on which I climbed?
You?
Great heavens! That it should come to this!.

.

.

Leave the room--instantly! Ladder! By all that is beautiful--the ladder upon which I, Samuel Johnson, the tallest person in letters, have climbed! Go! Do you hear ?" Boswell rose meekly, and, with tears coursing down his cheeks, left the room.
"That's one on you, Doctor," said Cicero, wrapping his toga about him.