'Once, for instance, I recollect that to fill up one of those aweful hiatus in conversation that occur at times in spite of all one's efforts to the contrary - and to entertain Miss M., I took up a Tristram Shandy; and read her one of the very best jokes within the boards of the book - Ah-h-h-h! sighed Miss M. and put on a look of right tend[er] melancholy!! - Now. - Did the smallest glimmering of reason appea[r]? Never.'