"I thought we had found such a champion to-day," exclaimed the other lady, "in the person who sat next me at dinner. His hands were so nice that I should not have objected in the least to his offering me such dishes as were within his reach, especially as there seemed to be no servant to attend us, and we really sat half through the first course without bread or water. Having nothing else to do, for some time, I quietly amused myself with observing my courteous neighbor. So wholly absorbed did he seem in his own contemplations, so utterly oblivious of everything around him, except the contents of his heaped-up plate, that I soon became convinced that I had the honor to be in close proximity to a philosopher, at least, and probably to some fixed star in the realms of science!"
"Oh, Clare! I am so sorry to tell you, but I learned afterwards, accidentally, that your profound-looking neighbor is—a dentist!"
"And, therefore, accustomed only to the most painful associations with the mouths of others!" chimed in the aristocrat, laughing in chorus: "Well, as our shrewd, sensible friend, the daughter of the Siddons, used to say, after her return from America, 'if the Americans profess to be all equal, they should be equally well bred!'"
With a repetition of this doubly sarcastic apothegm, my dear friends, for the present,
Adieu!
Harry Lunettes.
LETTER VII.
HEALTH, THE TOILET, ETC.
My dear Nephews:
Since no man can fulfill his destiny as an actively-useful member of society without Health, perhaps a few practical suggestions on this important subject may not be inconsistent with our present purpose.