It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

Green wood hardens after about four or five scorchings in the fire, but several scorchings are required to drive out the sap.

Because V.'s literary dabblings are blended faggotly out of sophistication and vulgarity, they have sold well.

I disavailed myself of his services.