"You have set me a task," answered Mr. Otway, "which would require more time to execute than we have at present to spare; but you are perfectly right in your conjecture, that they are all three worth knowing _au fond_ as characters of peculiar though very different construction; and I look upon every one of them as such a well defined specimen of its genus, that were I assorting mankind, as a cutler does knives and scissors, I would stick my three friends on the outside of my parcels, as indexes to the contents within each paper of the several classes to which they belong. Though the lady claims precedence, I will tell you something of my old neighbour to begin with:--Mrs. Fitzroy made a true hit to-day, when she said that she was certain he had been disappointed in early life. It was exactly the case. He began the world with humble expectations, and was intended for the profession of an attorney. Nature had given him a strong and shrewd understanding, set in one of those brazen scabbards that defy the inroads of time and bad weather. He was one of many children, and accustomed, as the sailors say, to _roughing it_, through life. With a body in which _nerves_ were left out, and a mind divested of any troublesome sensibilities, he _tackled_ to his calling, and had not fortune stepped in between him and the necessity of working for his bread, would not only have been one of the most active of the busy fraternity with which he was incorporated, but would also, I believe, have set a praiseworthy example of upright conduct; for I look upon him as a man of incorruptible integrity. He had finished his _noviciate_, and was just embarking in this minor department of the law, with a respectable coadjutor, when he began to think that a partner of the softer sex might be a proper _coping to the wall_ of his destiny; and accordingly he made his proposals to a young lady of some personal attraction, and such a convenient _modicum_ of wealth as, without rendering it presumptuous to approach her, flattered his self-complacency with the prospect of meriting, at least, an _ovation_ for his success. There was no _if_ in the calculation; a doubt never once insinuated itself into his mind; not that he was a conceited or overbearing young man by any means; but his opinions, derived from vulgar sources, were made up in bundles, endorsed, and stowed away in the various compartments of his pericranium, where they were alphabetically arranged like papers in the pigeon-holes of his desk. On looking at number thirteen, letter M, and taking down the packet, he found it docketed 'Marriage;' and on turning a page, the following synopsis of contents may, we suppose, have presented itself to his view:--'Eight and twenty; fair time to look for a wife--marriage, convenient for man--indispensable for woman--idle to marry without money--a profession, may reasonably be reckoned against three or four thousand pounds. Any thing over five feet eight _tells_