FASHIONABLE DEBTS AND FASHIONABLE DIPLOMATISTS.
"In days not altogether halcyon, I had a venerable great-uncle, a
quaint specimen of human infirmity, the singularity of the parish.
Though eccentric at times, he was not destitute of good qualities.
These, had they been properly applied, might have served to
distinguish him among men in what is pedantically called the higher
walks of life. But he had a fault, and one that is very unpopular even
at this day: he would get vexed at the short-comings of his neighbors,
at whom he would level truths exceedingly unpalatable. Indeed, he
never failed to put very keen edges on his sayings. Even now, I have
the old man in my mind's eye, as in the hey-day of youth my boyish
fancy sported with his infirmities. Never shall I forget his slender,
stooping figure; his bright bald crown, curtained with locks that
pended snowy over his coat collar; his weeping, watchful eye; his
tottering mien; his high and furrowed brow, lengthening a sharp,
corrugated face; his blunt, warty nose, made more striking by a sunken
mouth and the working motion of his lower jaw; and his crutch, for he
was a cripple.
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