“Well, it is unlucky she should have taken it in her head to turn sour, just on this occasion. She might at least have waited till tomorrow.”

“That’s her malevolence⁠—that’s her malevolence,” returned Mr. Bob Sawyer vehemently. “She says that if I can afford to give a party I ought to be able to pay her confounded ‘little bill.’ ”

“How long has it been running?” inquired Mr. Ben Allen. A bill, by the by, is the most extraordinary locomotive engine that the genius of man ever produced. It would keep on running during the longest lifetime, without ever once stopping of its own accord.

“Only a quarter, and a month or so,” replied Mr. Bob Sawyer.