Mercury Prompting
Fledgeby deserved Mr. Alfred Lammle’s eulogium. He was the meanest cur existing, with a single pair of legs. And instinct (a word we all clearly understand) going largely on four legs, and reason always on two, meanness on four legs never attains the perfection of meanness on two.
The father of this young gentleman had been a moneylender, who had transacted professional business with the mother of this young gentleman, when he, the latter, was waiting in the vast dark antechambers of the present world to be born. The lady, a widow, being unable to pay the moneylender, married him; and in due course, Fledgeby was summoned out of the vast dark antechambers to come and be presented to the Registrar-General. Rather a curious speculation how Fledgeby would otherwise have disposed of his leisure until Doomsday.