Now there's the man who has married one of my nieces--poor lass! Reardon, his name is.

You know him, I dare say.
Just for curiosity I had a look at one of his books; it was called "The Optimist." Of all the morbid trash I ever saw, that beat everything.

I thought of writing him a letter, advising a couple of anti-bilious pills before bedtime for a few weeks.' Jasper glanced at Alfred Yule, who wore a look of indifference.
'That man deserves penal servitude in my opinion,' pursued John.

'I'm not sure that it isn't my duty to offer him a couple of hundred a year on condition that he writes no more.' Milvain, with a clear vision of his friend in London, burst into laughter.

But at that point Alfred rose from his chair.
'Shall we rejoin the ladies ?' he said, with a certain pedantry of phrase and manner which often characterised him.
'Think over your ways whilst you're still young,' said John as he shook hands with his visitor.
'Your brother speaks quite seriously, I suppose ?' Jasper remarked when he was in the garden with Alfred.
'I think so.