Chapter V: D. N

NAVORSCHER, p. 179. June, 1851.

_Meaning of Tick_ (Vol. iii., p. 357.).--The following anecdote, as characteristic of the individual as illustrative of the above Query, may perhaps be considered deserving a corner in your Journal:--

"A well-meaning friend calling one morning on Richard B. Sheridan,
wound up a rather prosy exordium on the propriety of domestic
economy, by expressing a hope, that the pressure of some
difficulties from which he had been temporarily removed, would
induce a more cautious arrangement in future.

"Sheridan listened with great gravity, and thanking his visitor,
assured him that he never felt so happy, as all his affairs were
now proceeding with the _regularity of clockwork_, adding (with a
roguish twinkle of the eye, and giving his arm the oscillating
motion of a pendulum), 'Tick, tick, tick!' It is needless to add,
the Mentor took a hasty leave of his witty but incorrigible
companion."