“There’s the postman, my dear,” said I with gentleness and equanimity to my wife, on the morning of the third day after the conversation above alluded to had taken place. “It is a letter from my friend Secretary Wilkins, to inform me that I have lost the situation of ——; that Mr S—, performing miracles in the way of expedition, although not impelled by any particular motive, came home just in time to support his friend and, of course, to cut me out.”
It was precisely so. “My dear Sir,” began my friend’s letter, “I am truly sorry to inform you”——I read no more; not another word. It was quite unnecessary; I knew it all before. So, laying the letter gently on the table, I said with my wonted smile, “Exactly; all right!”
Now, does the reader think that, in this, or in any other similar case, I gave myself the smallest uneasiness about the result? Not I, indeed—not the smallest. I expected no success, and was not therefore disappointed.
C.
OLD TIMES.
BY J. U. U.
“My soul is full of other times!”
Where is that spirit of our prime,
The good old day!
Have the life and power of that honoured time