Paul Clifford, Volume VII

Subtle, Surly, -- Mammon, Dol, Hot Ananias, Dapper, Dragger, -- all With whom I traded. The Alchemist.

As when some rural citizen-retired for a fleeting holiday, far from the cares of the world _strepitumque Romae_, -- [" And the roar of Rome. "] -- to the sweet shades of Pentonville or the remoter plains of Clapham -- conducts some delighted visitor over the intricacies of that Daedalian masterpiece which he is pleased to call his labyrinth or maze, -- now smiling furtively at his guest's perplexity, now listening with calm superiority to his futile and erring conjectures, now maliciously accompanying him through a flattering path in which the baffled adventurer is suddenly checked by the blank features of a thoroughfareless hedge, now trembling as he sees the guest stumbling unawares into the right track, and now relieved as he beholds him after a pause of deliberation wind into the wrong, -- even so, O pleasant reader!