His till was afflicted with a sort of
sinking-fundishness. I was the contractor of "the small bill," whose exact
amount would enable him to meet a "heavy payment;" my very garments were
"tabooed" from all earth's decencies; splashes seemed to have taken a
lease of the bottoms of my trousers. My boots, once objects of the
tenderest care of their unworthy namesake, seemed conscious of the change,
and drooped in untreed wretchedness, desponding at the wretched wrinkles
now ruffling the once smooth calf! My coat no more appeared to catch the
dust; as if under the influence of some invisible charm, its white-washed
elbows never struck upon the sight of the else all-seeing boots; spider
never rushed from his cell with the post-haste speed with which he issued
from his dark recess, to pick the slightest cobweb that ever harnessed
Queen Mab's team, from _other_ coats; a gnat, a wandering hair left its
location, swept by the angry brush from the broad-cloth of those who paid
their bills--as far as I was concerned--all were inoculated with this
strange blindness. It was an overwhelming ophthalmia! The chambermaid,
through its fatality, never discovered that my jugs were empty, my bottle
clothed with slimy green, my soap-dish left untenanted. A day before this
time had been sufficient service for my hand-towel; now a week seemed to
render it less fit to taste the rubs of hands and soap.
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