fortunate, on premises exactly answering to those of Mr. Wegg. One might have fancied that the big-headed babies were toppling over with their hydrocephalic attempts to reckon up the children of men who transform their benefactors into their injurers by the same process. The yard or two of smile on the part of the alligator might have been invested with the meaning, “All about this was quite familiar knowledge down in the depths of the slime, ages ago.”
“But,” said Wegg, possibly with some slight perception to the foregoing effect, “your speaking countenance remarks, Mr. Venus, that I’m duller and savager than usual. Perhaps I have allowed myself to brood too much. Begone, dull care! ’Tis gone, sir. I’ve looked in upon you, and empire resumes her sway. For, as the song says—subject to your correction, sir—
‘When the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled if Venus appears. Like the notes of a fiddle, you sweetly, sir, sweetly, Raises our spirits and charms our ears.’
Good night,