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 upon what I was saying. Very possibly your age may be indefinable. You may be a person of another century. A wandering Jewess. I never heard that the old Jew had a wife, or a mother, who partook of his longevity; but very likely I may now have the pleasure of seeing one of his family under my own roof? That red and white, that you lay on so happily, may just as well hide the wrinkles of two or three grand climacterics, as of only a poor single sixty or seventy years of age. However, these are secrets that I don't presume to enquire into. Every trade has its mystery."

These splenetic witticisms producing no reply, Mrs. Ireton, more categorically, demanded, "Pray, Ma'am, pray Mrs. What's-your-name, will you give me leave to ask what brings you to my house?"

"Miss Joddrel, Madam, informed me that you desired my attendance."

"Yes; but with what view?"