“All right,” said he, “I’ll turn it over at just what I paid for it, and you can send me your check when you are ready.”
I was mean enough to accept his offer, and the book is to-day worth at least twice what I paid.
Yet, come to think of it, several nice volumes, “collated and perfect,” came from him. There is my “Vicar,” not the first edition, with the misprints in volume 2, page 159, paged 165; and page 95, “Waekcfield” for “Wakefield,”—that came from North,—but the one with Rowlandson plates. And “Evelina,” embellished with engravings, and wretchedly printed on vile paper; and “She Stoops to Conquer,” with all the errors just as they should be—a printer’s carnival; and I have no doubt there are many more.
Sessler has some unexpectedly fine things from time to time. He goes abroad every year with his pocket full of money, and comes back with a lot of things that quickly empty ours. Dickens is one of his specialties, and from him I have secured at least five of the twenty-one presentation Dickenses that I boast of. A few years ago quite a number came on the market at prices which to-day seem very low. In my last book-hunting experience in London I saw only one presentation Dickens; but as the price was about three times what I had accustomed myself to pay Sessler, I let it pass.