"All my vast experience is at your service, and the best and sweetest and prettiest girls in Sunwich regard me as a sort of second father." "What's a second father ?" inquired Jim, looking up--"a grandfather ?" "Go your own way," said the other; "I wash my hands of you.

You're not in earnest, or you'd clutch at any straw.

But let me give you one word of advice.

Be careful how you get hold of the old lady; let her understand from the commencement that it isn't her." Mr.Hardy went on with his work.

There was a pile of it in front of him and an accumulation in his drawers.