for Tom will never stick to the office when he's got a thousand a year, and a nice house in the country. So I reckon our worst days are over, and that we shall get on now we're once set going."
"If we never see worse days than we have done," said his wife, smiling, "we shall have no reason to complain, either."
As Mr. Wetherall had foreseen, Mr. Lyon proved an extraordinary acquisition. He was not only a capital fellow himself, but he knew a number of other capital fellows who were all as willing to be introduced to Mr. Wetherall as he was to them, and who unanimously agreed that Mr. Wetherall himself was also a capital fellow. The consequence was, that there were dinner parties on a Sunday, and supper parties four or five times in a week, at which the only contention that arose was, who should be the merriest, and say or do the funniest things. The visitors were mostly actors of an inferior grade, who if they could make nobody laugh when they were on the stage, could keep Mr. Wetherall's table in a roar; and who if they could not act themselves, had a particular talent for imitating those who could. The host was little behind them—he could bray like an
