ing put to flight every idea that I had in the world."
"Mr. Maynard," said the bookseller, in a solemn tone, "it is very wrong to run in debt."
"How can I help it?" returned Walter, pettishly.
"Let me advise you," continued the other, with the same solemnity, "never to have any article for which you cannot pay at the time. Expectations are the worst paymasters in the world."
"Well," cried Walter, "since you have taken upon yourself the office of advice, I hope you, also, mean to take that of assistance. Now do, like a good creature, pay me at once for the pamphlet, which, I give you my honour as a gentleman, shall be in your hands by six o'clock to-morrow."
"Sir," said Curl, "what you ask is against my principles; you are in the second stage of authorship."
"What do you mean?" asked his auditor.
"I never object," was the answer, "to
