II HOW THE DEVIL STOLE THE COLLECTOR'S SNUFFBOX Lieutenant Thomas Goodhouse was the Collector of Customs in the town of New Hope.

For this fortunate act of rescue the Earl of Clandennie presented to his son's preserver a gold snuffbox filled with guineas, and inscribed with the following legend: "To Lieutenant Thomas Goodhouse, who, under the Ruling of Beneficent Providence, was the Happy Preserver of a Beautiful and Precious Life of Virtuous Precocity, this Box is presented by the Father of Him whom He saved as a grateful acknowledgment of His Services.

Thereupon, hauling out his precious snuffbox and rapping upon the lid, he offered a pinch around.

Then drawing forth his snuffbox, he thrust it under the nose of the being to whom he spake.

The next instant he was struck upon the wrist as though by a bolt of lightning, and the snuffbox, describing a yellow circle against the light of the door, disappeared into the darkness of the night beyond.

The snuffbox which the Lieutenant had regarded with such prodigious pride as the one emblem of his otherwise dubious virtue was gone.

It was the gold snuffbox of the late Collector Goodhouse.

General Rochambeau tapped his snuffbox meditatively, like a man in two minds.

Madame's table, with its basket of chenilles, stood in the same place, and by it was her enamelled snuffbox.

Just as a gentleman might not act naturally, but must follow exact rules in doffing his hat, or addressing a lady, or entering a room, or wearing a wig, or offering his snuffbox to a friend, so our writers lost individuality and became formal and artificial.

The merry old gentleman, placing a snuffbox in one pocket of his trousers, a note-book in the other, and a watch in his waistcoat, and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt, and spectacle-case and handkerchief in his coat-pocket, trotted up and down the room in imitation of the manner in which old gentlemen walk about the streets; while the Dodger and Charley Bates had to get all these things out of his pockets without being observed.

Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes; when he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuffbox empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable eyes.

Having divided the money into two unequal heaps, and added a golden snuffbox to the lesser heap, he desired Mr. Wild to take his choice.

In this state of mind, I bought me a snuffbox; for, as I could not honestly recommend my disjointed self to any decent woman, it seemed a kind of duty in me to contract such habits as would effectually prevent my taking in the lady I had once thought of.

I then threw my snuffbox into the fire, and took to cigars.

312, n. 3; Discourses on Painting, Empress of Russia's testimony of a snuffbox, iii. 370; first volume published, in.

Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes; when he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuffbox is empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright on a bench, with lamentable eyes.

Lizanka, where is my snuffbox?"

And she tapped her suggestive snuffbox.

I drown not, Clarence-like, even in butts of malmsey, my hard-earned gold; and I own I am not fond of the juices of the muscadine of your hills;" and she tapped her snuffbox.

"You are going to hear her talk now," whispered Favraud; "that is a signequal to General Finistere'sthe snuffbox tapping, I mean.

Lost in deep thought, and gently tapping her snuffbox as she musedthe tripod of her inspiration, as it seemedMadame Grambeau sat silently, with what memories of the past and what insight into the future none can know save those like herself grown hoary with wisdom and experience.

And she applied herself again assiduously to her snuffbox, tapping it peremptorily before opening it, and, with a gloomy eye fixed on space, she continued: "In all lands, from the time of Cassandra and Jeremiah up, there have been prophets.

she repeated, looking at me over her tortoise-shell spectacles, and, quietly drawing out a snuffbox of the same material, she proceeded to fill her narrow nostrils therewith.

Mrs. Clayton, with her prison-key in her pocket, and her snuffbox at hand, yielded herself to the delight of ginger-nuts and her stocking-basket, and rested calmly after her fatigues of the preceding day; and Ernie, attracted by the crunching noisethe sound of dropping nuts, perhaps, which betrayed the presence of his favorite article of foodhastened to keep her companya thing he never did disinterestedly, it must be confessed.