But if it should be the case that any of those printed here have been printed before, I do not think any reader will object to having them again brought under his eye.] I was for several years a frequent contributor to _Household Words_, my contributions for the most part consisting of what I considered tit-bits from the byways of Italian history, which the persevering plough of my reading turned up from time to time.
In one case I remember the article was sent "to order," I was dining with him after I had just had all the remaining hairs on my head made to stand on end by the perusal of the officially published _Manual for Confessors_, as approved by superior authority for the dioceses of Tuscany.

I was full of the subject, and made, I fancy, the hairs of some who sat at table with me stand on end also.

Dickens said, with nailing forefinger levelled at me, "Give us that for _Household Words_.

Give it us just as you have now been telling it to us"-- which I accordingly did.

Whether the publication of that article was in anywise connected with the fact that when I wished to purchase a second copy of that most extraordinary work I was told that it was out of print, and not to be had, I do not know.