Falling headlong from the landing, her ladyship pitched (pardon me the expression)--pitched into the very middle of the bundle.

She was a little shaken at the time, but is reported to be going on charmingly this morning.

Most fortunate, was it not?
Seen the papers?
Awful news from Demerara--the yellow fever--" "I wish I was at Demerara," I said, in a hollow voice.
"You! Why ?" exclaimed Mr.Batterbury, aghast.
"I am homeless, friendless, penniless," I went on, getting more hollow at every word.

"All my intellectual instincts tell me that I could retrieve my position and live respectably in the world, if I might only try my hand at portrait-painting--the thing of all others that I am naturally fittest for.

But I have nobody to start me; no sitter to give me a first chance; nothing in my pocket but three-and-sixpence; and nothing in my mind but a doubt whether I shall struggle on a little longer, or end it immediately in the Thames.