He had the good fortune to please Mr. MacGrawler, who, after having made a few corrections in style, declared he evinced a peculiar genius in that branch of composition. And then it was that Paul, made conceited by praise, said, looking contemptuously in the face of his preceptor, and swinging his legs to and fro, "And what, sir, shall I receive for the plastered epic and the slashed inquiry?" As the face of the schoolboy who, when guessing, as he thinks rightly, at the meaning of some mysterious word in "Cornelius Nepos," receives not the sugared epithet of praise, but a sudden stroke across the os humeri, even so, blank, puzzled, and thunder-stricken, waxed the face of Mr. MacGrawler, at the abrupt and astounding audacity of Paul.
"Receive!" he repeated, "receive! — Why, you impudent, ungrateful puppy, would you steal the bread from your old master? If I can obtain for your crude articles an admission into the illustrious pages of the Asinium, will you not be sufficiently paid, sir, by the honor? Answer me that. Another man, young gentleman, would have charged you a premium for his instructions; — and here have I, in one lesson, imparted to you all the mysteries of the science, and for nothing! And you talk to me of 'receive!' — 'receive!' Young gentleman, in the words of the immortal bard, 'I would as lief you had talked to me of ratsbane!'"

"In fine, then, Mr. MacGrawler, I shall get nothing for my trouble?" said Paul. 