going to suggest with a modest sense of my youth and the familiarity i had been already guilty of that i had better give him the full benefit of that name when my aunt went on to say but don t you call him by it whatever you do he can t bear his name that s a peculiarity of his though i don t know that it s much of a peculiarity either for he has been ill used enough by some that bear it to have a mortal for it heaven knows mr dick is his name here and everywhere else now � if he ever went anywhere else which he don t so take care child you don t call him anything but mr dick i promised to obey and went up stairs with my message thinking as i went that if mr dick had been working at his memorial long at the same rate as i had seen him working at it through the open door when i came down he was probably getting on very well indeed i found him still driving at it with a long pen and his head almost laid upon the paper he was so intent upon it that i had ample leisure to observe the large paper in a corner the confusion of bundles of manuscript the number of pens and above all the quantity of ink which he seemed to have in in half by the dozen before he observed my being present ha said mr dick laying down his pen how does the world go i tell you what he added in a lower tone i shouldn t wish it to be mentioned but it s a � here he beckoned to me and put his lips close to my ear � it s a mad world mad as boy said mr dick taking snuff from a round box on the table and laughing heartily of david without to give my opinion on this question i delivered my message well said mr dick in answer my compliments to her and i � i believe i have made a start i think i have made a start said mr dick passing his hand among his grey hair and casting anything but a confident look at his manuscript you have been to school yes sir i answered for a short time do you recollect the date said mr dick looking earnestly at me and taking up his pen to note it down when king charles the first had his head cut off i said i believed it happened in the year sixteen hundred and forty nine well returned mr dick scratching his ear with his pen and looking at me so the books say but i don t see how that can be because if it was so long ago how could the people about him have made that mistake of putting some of the trouble out of his head after it was taken off into mine i was very much surprised by the inquiry but could give no information on this point it s very strange said mr dick with a look upon his papers and with his hand among his hair again that i never can get that quite right i never can make that perfectly clear but no matter no matter he said cheerfully and rousing himself there s time enough my compliments to miss i am getting on very well indeed i was going away when he directed my attention to the what do you think of that for a he said i answered that it was a beautiful one i should think it must have been as much as seven feet high i made it we go and fly it you and i said mr dick i do you see this he showed me that it was covered with manuscript very closely and laboriously written but so plainly that as i looked along the lines i thought i saw some allusion to king charles the first s head again in one or two places there s plenty of string said mr dick and when it flies high it takes the facts a long way that s my manner of em i don t know where they may come down it s according to circumstances and the wind and so forth but i take my chance of that his face was so very mild and pleasant and had something so reverend in it though it was hale and hearty that i was not sure but that he was having a good humoured jest with me so i laughed and he laughed and we parted the best friends possible well child said my aunt when i went down stairs and what of mr dick this morning i informed her that he sent his compliments and was getting on very well indeed what do you think of him said my aunt i had some shadowy idea of endeavouring to the question by replying that i thought him a very nice gentleman but my aunt was not to be so put off for she laid her work down in her lap and said folding her hands upon it l the personal history and experience come your sister would have told me what she thought of any one directly be as like your sister as you can and speak out is he � is mr dick � i ask because i don t know aunt � is he at all out of his mind then i stammered for i felt i was on dangerous ground not a morsel said my aunt oh indeed t observed faintly if there is anything in the world said my aunt with great decision and force of manner that mr dick is not it s that i had nothing better to offer than another timid oh indeed he has been called mad said my aunt 