Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 1).pdf/18

 Now it appears, by a memorandum in my father's pocket-book, which now lies upon the table, "That on Lady-Day, which was on the 25th of the same month in which I date my geniture,—my father set upon his journey to London with my eldest brother Bobby, to fix him at Westminster school;" and, as it appears from the same authority, "That he did not get down to his wife and family till the second week in May following,"—it brings the thing almost to a certainty. However, what follows in the beginning of the next chapter puts it beyond all possibility of a doubt.

But pray, Sir, What was your father doing all December,—January, and February?—Why, Madam,—he was all that time afflicted with a Sciatica.