which gave rise to a train of moral reflections on those three great epochs in the course of the featherless biped—birth, marriage, and death. The middle stage of the process arrested his attention, and his imagination placed before him several figures, which he thought, with the addition of his own, would make a very picturesque group: the beautiful Cephalis, "arrayed in her bridal apparel of white"—her friend Caprioletta officiating as bride-maid—Mr. Cranium giving her away—and last, not least, the Reverend Doctor Gaster, intoning the marriage ceremony with the regular orthodox allowance of nasal recitative. Whilst he was feasting his eyes on this imaginary picture, the demon of mistrust insinuated himself into the storehouse of his conceptions, and, removing his figure from the group, substituted that of Mr. Panoscope, which gave such a violent shock to his feelings,
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HEADLONG HALL.
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