He half suffocated himself with laughing here.

“Lord bless you!” said Mr. Omer, resuming his pipe, “a man must take the fat with the lean; that’s what he must make up his mind to, in this life. Joram does a fine business. Ex-cellent business!”

“I am very glad to hear it,” said I.

“I knew you would be,” said Mr. Omer. “And Joram and Minnie are like valentines. What more can a man expect? What’s his limbs to that !”

His supreme contempt for his own limbs, as he sat smoking, was one of the pleasantest oddities I have ever encountered.