“So he was discovered, only the other day, after having been expatriated about fourteen years.”
A Buffer, suddenly astounding the other three, by detaching himself, and asserting individuality, inquires: “How discovered, and why?”
“Ah! To be sure. Thank you for reminding me. Venerable parent dies.”
Same Buffer, emboldened by success, says: “When?”
“The other day. Ten or twelve months ago.”
Same Buffer inquires with smartness, “What of?” But herein perishes a melancholy example; being regarded by the three other Buffers with a stony stare, and attracting no further attention from any mortal.
“Venerable parent,” Mortimer repeats with a passing remembrance that there is a Veneering at table, and for the first time addressing him—“dies.”
The gratified Veneering repeats, gravely, “dies”; and folds his arms, and composes his brow to hear it out in a judicial manner, when he finds