Mr. Sampson said, with no reason whatever, Of course not.) “This gentleman was so obliging as to honour me with attentions which I could not fail to understand.” (Here Mr. Sampson murmured that when it came to that, you could always tell.) “I immediately announced to both my parents that those attentions were misplaced, and that I could not favour his suit. They inquired was he too tall? I replied it was not the stature, but the intellect was too lofty. At our house, I said, the tone was too brilliant, the pressure was too high, to be maintained by me, a mere woman, in everyday domestic life. I well remember mamma’s clasping her hands, and exclaiming ‘This will end in a little man!’ ” (Here Mr. Sampson glanced at his host and shook his head with despondency.) “She afterwards went so far as to predict that it would end in a little man whose mind would be below the average, but that was in what I may denominate a paroxysm of maternal disappointment. Within a month,” said Mrs.