But I liked best to have him, as I frequently had, all to myself.

I suppose I am not, as Johnson said, a "clubbable" man.

At all events I highly appreciate what the Irishman called a tatur-tatur dinner, whether the gender in the case be masculine or feminine; and I incline to give my adherence to the philosophy of the axiom that declares "two to be company, and three none." But then I am very deaf, and that has doubtless much to do with it.
On the 10th of September, 1868, Dickens writes:-- * * * * * "The madness and general political bestiality of the General Elections will come off in the appropriate Guy Fawkes days.

It was proposed to me, under very flattering circumstances indeed, to come in as the third member for Birmingham; I replied in what is now my stereotyped phrase, 'that no consideration on earth would induce me to become a candidate for the representation of any place in the House of Commons.' Indeed it is a dismal sight, is that arena altogether.

Its irrationality and dishonesty are quite shocking." [What would he have said now!] "How disheartening it is, that in affairs spiritual or temporal mankind will not begin at the beginning, but _will_ begin with assumptions.