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442 Old Price's Remains. what he had the audacity to consider an impertinent inter¬ ruption. Who should come gliding behind him (whether actually on his shell or some very near-standing object I do not now remember,) but Miranda, stretching her super¬ fine opaline neck sidewise, so as to peer into his " ugly mug." The Hermit, not choosing to be stared at even by such a face, first bestowed upon it such an unloving ogle as none but Pag could give fair Lady, with that swivel eye of his; and then, having made up his mind to stand no more of that kind of thing (just thek'md of thing our friend Punch would say one can " stand a good deal of,") he, without ceremony, punched her pretty face with his elbow. The poor little face averted, the neck shortened off, and tentacles retracted, presented a tout ensemble of injured feeling and uncomplaining forbearance that might have melted a heart of stone ! As if she thought it must have been an accident, she resumed her direct posture, stretched out her neck again, extended her staring horns, and re¬ peated her attempt to pass round, as if nothing had hap¬ pened. Barely squinting to see who was there, he punched again,—not angrily, but as one who "did not choose to be put upon f and again she shrank and turned away, as an affronted snail alone could have done. Once more for¬ giving the rudeness (or, charitably judging it to be an oversight,) she made up her mind, and body, to advance firmly but meekly in the disputed course ; and, as she, in spite of rebuffs, actually gained some ground each time, his veto had to be expressed by a " back-hander " instead of a nudge; and latterly with his finger and thumb slightly parted, as who should say, " We can pinch, if you go too far with this intrusion." How far it did proceed, or how it ended, I can not recollect: most likely I had to leave them to settle it, being due elsewhere. But my intimate