"Mr Flips, surgeon," said the lady of the place, after a little preliminary conversation, "no, I never heard the name, and I've been here two years this next week, when my landlord will most likely call. He says he has a bad memory, but he always recollects the quarter-days. He lives down in Dorsetshire, and when he comes up I can ask him if you like; perhaps he would know; or you might write; but he's sure to write to me directly to say he is coming, so that, as he says, I may be ready for him, just as if one ever was ready for one's landlord. Two years-- yes, just two years," she continued musingly. "There was a whole year at the millinery, which didn't half-pay the rent; for people here don't seem to wear bonnets, and when they do, they've been turned and cleaned and altered or somethinged or anothered, although I put my prices so low that there was no room for a bit of profit. Then there was the fancy stationery three months, which was worse, for the only kind of stationery the people fancied was penny-stamps, which cost me a penny a-piece, and then people either wanted them to be stuck on their letters, or else wrapped, up in paper. Then there was the newspaper and periodical trade, which was worse than all; for, as if just out of aggravation, the people always came and asked for the very thing you had not got. I declare that if it wasn't that you can sit down and read your stock, the periodical trade would be unbearable. Only think of the trouble people gave you by ordering things regularly and never coming and fetching them; so that the back numbers used to get piled up most terribly. And now, you know, I've been six months at this, and it's so trying, you can't think; for, you see, I'm worse off than anybody: I've not got to please the missuses--I beg pardon, the mistresses only, but the servants; and really, after my experience I can say that there's no pleasing anyone." Septimus Hardon glanced hopelessly at Matt, but he would not see him, and took pinch after pinch of snuff furiously, with a comical expression upon his countenance the former could not interpret.