"You've done the most impolitic thing! the most hazardous"--
"Sir!" said my husband, grasping his cane.
"I lament it," said the little man, turning to me; "your book has done
it for you."
I thought of the reviews, and trembled.
"How _could_ you," continued our tormentor, "how could you put the
Pumpington Wells people in your novel?"
"The Pumpington Wells people!--Nonsense; there are good and bad people
in my novel, and there are good and bad people in Pumpington Wells; but
you flatter the good, if you think that when I dipped my pen in praise,
I limited my sketches to the virtuous of this place; and what is worse,
_you_ libel the bad if you assert that my sketches of vice were meant
personally to apply to the vicious who reside here."
"_I_ libel--_I_ assert!" said the old lady-like little man; "not
_I_!--every body says so!"
"You may laugh," replied my mentor and tormentor combined, "but
personality can be proved against you; and all the friends and relations
of Mr. Flaw declare you meant the bad man of your book for him."
"His friends and relations are too kind to him."
"Then you have an irregular character in your book, and Mrs. Blemish's
extensive circle of intimates assert that nothing can be more pointed
than your allusion to _her_ conduct and _her_ character."
"And pray what do these persons say about it themselves?"
"They are outrageous, and go about the town absolutely wild.
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