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My misfortune was to carry it into print when I began to write a story, in the Ik Marvel manner, or rather to compose it in type at the case, for that was what I did; and it was not altogether imitated from Ik Marvel either, for I drew upon the easier art of Dickens at times, and helped myself out with bald parodies of Bleak House in many places.

"I suppose you wish to insinuate that I acted like a heathen, instead of saying that I am one plainly, as does Cousin Ik?" "I think you acted a little thoughtlessly. If Miss Burton had been in your place, she would have tried to prevent the disagreeable scene." "Oh, certainly! she is perfect." "No; she is kind." "Would it be possible to speak upon some agreeable subject, Mr. Van Berg?

"A seaman has to cultivate three things, my lady, a Nelson eye, a Nelson ear, and a Nelson nose. I've got 'em all." Mrs. Weston smiled with, flattering expectancy. "I don't claim to know what's going on in the rest of the world," he continued significantly, "but you can back your Uncle Ik to know everything that's happening on board this wagon." "What's happening now? Do tell me," said Mrs.

What I have said of Dickens reminds me that I had been reading him at the same time that I had been reading Ik Marvel; but a curious thing about the reading of my later boyhood is that the dates do not sharply detach themselves one from another. This may be so because my reading was much more multifarious than it had been earlier, or because I was reading always two or three authors at a time.

Mayhew asked Van Berg to light a cigar with him in his study, but the artist declined and followed Ida to the parlor. "Mr. Van Berg," she said, with a great show of surprise, "how is it you don't smoke this evening? It seemed to me that you and Cousin Ik were drawn to a certain corner of Mr. Burleigh's piazza with the certainty of gravitation after dinner, and then you were lost in the clouds."

He'll find he can't play fast and loose with two such women as you and Jennie Burton. Curse it all! it isn't like him to do it either. But the world is topsy-turvey, anyhow." "Ik, I plead with you, say nothing, do nothing. Be blind and deaf to everything of which we have spoken. Only help me hide my secret and get away from this place to some other where I am not known."

Pardon me, Ik; I am not speaking of your cousin but in the abstract. In regard to that young lady, as you saw, I was very much struck with the face. Indeed, to tell the honest truth, I never saw so much beauty spoiled before, and the fact has put me in so bad a humor that you, no doubt, are glad I have reached my corner and so must say good-night."

"Well, Ik," replied Van Berg with a shrug, "I imagine there is a pair of us. My reason all that's decent in me refuses to regard Sibley as the cause of your cousin's most evident distress. For heaven's sake don't confirm your words of this afternoon, or I shall feel like taking the first train, in order to escape from the most exasperating paradox that ever contradicted a man's senses."

She hesitated a moment, and then said briefly: "Yes. We met at the concert-garden again, and he dined with us last evening." Stanton turned and looked at her earnestly, and her color rose swiftly under his questioning eyes. "My poor little Ida, we are in the same boat, I fear," he said compassionately. She hid her face on his shoulder. "Oh, Ik, spare me," she faltered.

By Jove, I never was so stirred up before, and could turn Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhist, or anything else, if she asked me to." "In either case, Ik," said Van Berg, "your worship would be the same, I imagine, and would never rise higher than the priestess." "Curse it all," exclaimed Stanton impetuously, "I feel to-night as if that were higher than I can ever rise.