=Mutual Friend= (_Our_), a novel by Charles Dickens (1864). The “mutual friend” is Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” who was the mutual friend of John Harmon and of Bella Wilfer. The tale is this: John Harmon was supposed to have been murdered by Julius Handford; but it was Ratford, who was murdered by Rogue Riderhood, and the mistake arose from a resemblance between the two persons. By his father’s will, John Harmon was to marry Bella Wilfer; but John Harmon knew not the person destined by his father for his wife, and made up his mind to dislike her. After his supposed murder, he assumed the name of John Rokesmith, and became the secretary of Mr. Boffin, “the golden dustman,” residuary legatee of old John Harmon, by which he became possessor of £100,000. Boffin knew Rokesmith, but concealed his knowledge for a time. At Boffin’s house, John Harmon (as Rokesmith) met Bella Wilfer, and fell in love with her. Mr. Boffin, in order to test Bella’s love, pretended to be angry with Rokesmith for presuming to love Bella; and, as Bella married him, he cast them both off “for a time,” to live on John’s earnings. A baby was born, and then the husband took the young mother to a beautiful house, and told her he was John Harmon, that the house was their house, that he was the possessor of £100,000 through the disinterested conduct of their “mutual friend,” Mr. Boffin; and the young couple lived happily with Mr. and Mrs. Boffin, in wealth and luxury. =Mutusa-ili=, Babylonian sage and unsuspected Jew, high in repute for wisdom and prophetic powers.--Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert D. Ward, _The Master of the Magicians_ (1890). =My Book= (_Dr._). Dr. John Aberne´thy (1765-1830) was so called because he used to say to his patients, “Read my book” (_On Surgical Observations_). =My Little All.= I was twice burnt out, and lost my little all both times.--Sheridan, _The Critic_, i. 1 (1779). =Myrebeau= (_Le sieure de_), one of the committee of the states of Burgundy.--Sir W. Scott, _Anne of Geierstein_ (time, Edward IV.). =Myro=, a statuary of Eleu´thĕræ, who carved a cow so true to nature that even bulls mistook it for a living animal. (See HORSE PAINTED.) E’en Myro’s statues, which for art surpass All others, once were but a shapeless mass. Ovid, _Art of Love_, iii. =Myrra=, an Ionian slave, and the beloved concubine of Sardanapa´lus, the Assyrian king. She roused him from his indolence to resist Arba´cês, the Mede, who aspired to his throne, and when she found his cause hopeless, induced him to mount a funeral pile, which she fired with her own hand, and then, springing into the flames, she perished with the tyrant.--Byron, _Sardanapalus_ (1819).