The Astonishing History of Troy Town

E-text prepared by Lionel Sear
This regiment of visitors. (Chapter VII)
TO CHARLES CANNAN . My Dear Cannan, It is told of a distinguished pedagogue that one day a heated stranger burst into his study, and, wringing him by the hand, cried, Heaven bless and reward you, sir! Heaven preserve you long to educate old England's boyhood! I have walked many a weary, weary mile to see your face again, he continued, flourishing a scrap of paper, and assure you that but for your discipline, obeyed by me as a boy and remembered as a man, I should never—no, never—have won the Ticket-of-Leave which you behold! In something of the same spirit I bring you this small volume. The child of encouragement is given to staggering its parent; and I make no doubt that as you turn the following pages, you will more than once exclaim, with the old lady in the ballad— O, deary me! this is none of I! Nevertheless, it would be strange indeed if this story bore no marks of you; for a hundred kindly instances have taught me to come with sure reliance for your reproof and praise. Few, I imagine, have the good fortune of a critic so friendly and inexorable; and if the critic has been unsparing, he has been used unsparingly. Wargrave, Henley-on-Thames, June 7, 1888
O, deary me! this is none of I!
O, deary me! this is none of I!

Any news to-night? asked Admiral Buzza, leading a trump.
Hush, my love, interposed his wife timidly, with a glance at the Vicar. She liked to sit at her husband's left, and laid her small cards before him as so many tributes to his greatness.
I will not hush, Emily. I repeat, is there any news to-night?
Miss Limpenny, his hostess and vis-a-vis, finding the Admiral's eye fierce upon her, coughed modestly and announced that twins had just arrived to the postmistress. Her manner, as she said this, implied that, for aught she knew, they had come with the letters.
The Vicar took the trick and gathered it up in silence. He was a portly, antique gentleman, with a fine taste for scandal in its proper place, but disliked conversation during a rubber.