Mr. Venus pours himself out more tea, with a look and in an attitude of the deepest desolation.

“And so a man climbs to the top of the tree, Mr. Wegg, only to see that there’s no lookout when he’s up there! I sit here of a night surrounded by the lovely trophies of my art, and what have they done for me? Ruined me. Brought me to the pass of being informed that ‘she does not wish to regard herself, nor yet to be regarded, in that boney light’!” Having repeated the fatal expressions, Mr. Venus drinks more tea by gulps, and offers an explanation of his doing so.

“It lowers me. When I’m equally lowered all over, lethargy sets in. By sticking to it till one or two in the morning, I get oblivion. Don’t let me detain you, Mr. Wegg. I’m not company for anyone.”