After rating him for little over three-
quarters of an hour, she would sink back on the pillow, and want to
go to sleep. But he would shake her gently by the shoulder.
"'Yes, dear,' he would say, 'you were speaking about Jane, and the
way I kept looking at her during lunch.'
"It's extraordinary," concluded my friend, lighting a fresh cigar,
"what creatures of habit we are."
"Very," I replied. "I knew a man who told tall stories till when
he told a true one nobody believed it."
"Ah, that was a very sad case," said my friend.
"Speaking of habit," said the unobtrusive man in the corner, "I can
tell you a true story that I'll bet my bottom dollar you won't
believe."
"Haven't got a bottom dollar, but I'll bet you half a sovereign I
do," replied my friend, who was of a sporting turn. "Who shall be
judge?"
"I'll take your word for it," said the unobtrusive man, and started
straight away.
"He was a Jefferson man, this man I'm going to tell you of," he
begun. "He was born in the town, and for forty-seven years he
never slept a night outside it. He was a most respectable man--a
drysalter from nine to four, and a Presbyterian in his leisure
moments.
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